Phantom Thief
by Talkingbirdguy
Summary: Thaddeus Kaito was born with the ability to turn liquids into ice. While this ability is amazing, it does have a pretty big drawback. Does he ignore this downside and go on to become a superhero? Fight crime as a vigilante? Hah! Screw that mess! Too goody-goody for his tastes. He's following his old man in the family business and becoming a Gentlemanly Thief. T for minor cursing.
1. Cool First Job

Phantom Thief chap 1

Hello all! Tis I, tis I, Talkingbirdguy! Yes, I am starting this story with that line as well.

To those who are new, welcome! You'll have no problems getting into this, though you'll miss out on certain references and won't immediately know who certain characters are because you haven't read my previous stories. (Both of which are located on my profile, if you want to suffer through the unedited portions of the first in the series. I really do need to go back and polish those up at some point.)

To my old readers, thanks for sticking around! I'll go ahead and clarify by saying that Phantom Thief is NOT a continuation of the Curse of the Lucario series. Yes, I know it's sad. This story is, however, located in the same universe. The characters know about the famous Jason Simmons and his son and all that stuff but they will not, as far as right now, be interacting with the Simmons. They've earned their break after two very successful (in my opinion) fics.

And, without further ado, I present the first chapter of Phantom Thief. Enjoy!

Warning! This story will contain trace amounts of cursing. Nothing too horrendous, but enough that I feel the need to post a small warning here. This will be the ONLY warning. At least the only warning that has to do with cursing.

Disclaimer: If I owned Pokemon, Pokemon Go would be much more awesome. As it's rather 'meh,' I think you know that I don't own it. (Edit: If Pokemon Go does happen to get a lot more fun all of a sudden, I more than likely did not gain abrupt ownership. Just thought I'd add that.)

* * *

Chapter 1

 **Cool First Job**

The warm air was suffocatingly muggy, heavy with the humidity from the unrelenting showers the day before. This was my favorite kind of weather, no contest. The air was just warm enough to cancel out the cold without leaving me feeling defenseless from a lack of available water molecules.

While most would conceal themselves indoors, or at least limit their time outside in this kind of weather, I did nothing of the sort. I was out for a walk early that Sunday morning for two reasons.

One: I had a job to do.

Two: I actually do enjoy walks in that kind of weather. The reason behind this will become obvious soon enough.

As for the aforementioned job, I glanced down at the note that Shelly had given to me right before I had left that morning. On it was the address of the warehouse and description of the object I was hired to retrieve.

Once the note was committed to memory, and the roof of the warehouse was in sight, I disposed of the note. To do this, I used the water that had soaked into the paper from the air. I turned it into ice, forcing the water molecules to expand and tear the paper into frozen shreds that I tossed to the ground. There wasn't even enough for someone to call it litter.

Now you might be wondering the trick behind how I froze that paper. That's simple: I have the ability to lower the energy in the molecules that make up H2O, thus forcing them into a more ridged form. Or, in layman's terms, create ice from water and ambient humidity. I could also do the reverse with any ice that I create and turn it back into liquid. Naturally formed ice was out of the question, however.

If you are wondering how I got this power, then join the already-long line. My parents had gotten me tested and nothing was weird about me. No detectable Pokemon DNA, no mutations (aside from my insanely blue eyes), no abnormalities as far as the doctors could tell. I was a normal six year old with the ability to reduce the temperature of water by an extreme degree, thus causing it to form into ice. (Plus another, honestly less useful, ability.)

Sounds awesome, right? Well it is. That is, except for the downside of not being immune to the cold that I create. I was a normal kid, remember? Whatever abilities I had began and ended at changing liquid water into the solid form and back, if I so chose.

Because of this fact, I had to bundle up whenever I went out. It was when I hit ten or so that my abilities stopped being a matter of me willingly using them. Any time when the air was more than thirty percent humidity, my abilities would cool the humid air that touched my skin. I would have to wipe off a thin sheet of ice from my skin if I stayed still for too long. Sweat that accumulated had the tendency to build up and take the top layer of skin off when I noticed them and pulled them off.

Once this began happening, my mom began bundling me up in increasingly warm clothing. Back then, she had me wear bulky sweaters and whatever kept me warm. More than once, I was made fun of and had the urge to freeze some bullies or give them frostbite or something.

Shelly quickly took that thought out of my head after he had me purposely freeze a tree totally solid. He brought me out to a state park and into the most deserted area he could find when he had me do that. It was the biggest thing I had ever tried to freeze and was, while the most difficult thing I had ever tried to freeze, still done with relative ease at the time.

The thing about living things is that they have water in them. That is a basic rule of life. When water gets turned into ice, it expands. A basic rule of science. Now if that happens in a living being, that's no exception. Every liquid within the tree I froze expanded rapidly at my beckoning and ripped it apart, forcing Shelly to pull me out of the way to avoid the rain of frozen splinters that rained down soon after.

After that day, I never truly considered doing that to someone. Thought about it? Certainly. But who doesn't feel homicidal now and again?

...Ahem. Let's not travel down that line of thought, hmm?

My current clothing style consisted of jeans that were partially waterproof and extra tough, some better quality running shoes, a turtleneck, and a double-breasted jacket. The last item was insisted upon by Shelly after I had begun to live with him full-time rather than the occasional weekend when my mom was out of town.

They, Shelly and my mom, split when I was seven. It had nothing to do with my newly emerged abilities, I was certain of that. Neither of them showed any animosity towards my powers and actually encouraged my usage, with the condition that I did not show it to anyone that I didn't trust explicitly. They changed their minds about that as I got older and let it be my decision.

I didn't find out the reason why they split until I was seventeen. Before then, my mother took full custody of me but stayed on good enough terms with Shelly that she let me see him pretty often. They were basically good friends or at least did a good enough job faking it that I couldn't see any difference.

I'm not quite sure why they split up. I had only ever seen them argue on rare occasions and was relatively sure that they didn't argue an excessive amount when I was away.

But that's enough about my wardrobe and family life. Back to the job.

I mentally tested the air and found more than enough moisture available for when the need came up.

I took a right and walked between two other buildings when I came within a block of the warehouse in question. My job didn't involve simply walking through the front door, of course. What I was doing wasn't _exactly_ legal. This job required stealth. Which brings me to the trash bag that was hid neatly behind some overturned rubbish bins. Anyone not looking for it would probably never notice it was any different from the rest.

I opened the trash bag and began to don the uniform that Shelly had conveniently placed the day before.

* * *

The first obstacle was a door. Me blowing into the lock and using the moisture from the exhale to force open the lock was a cake walk. Even easier than some of the practices Shelly had put me through. I eased the door open, wary of how it creaked. The warehouse was located in the old, not so pleasant, side of town. Everything metal was either well rusted or on its way there.

Once I opened it up enough to look in, I darted in and initiated the first part of the plan than Shelly had branded into my brain. Killing the lights.

I happened to be right next to the room with the circuit breakers, so I immediately flipped the switches and ran for cover. My dark clothing, quite honestly, had me looking like a ninja. I had fixed Shelly, who was half-Asian, with such a deadpan stare when he first showed me the suit.

The only reason I wore it was because it was incredibly well-insulated and kept ice from forming over my skin, even when I had to be still for awhile. I flexed my hands in impatience, feeling the gloves stretch a little with my fingers, and wiped away a bead of sweat that had formed and froze on my forehead. (It didn't take away any skin like such actions had when I was younger because I had figured out a way to avoid such annoyances.) Shelly told me that he would be giving me something to cover up the parts of my head that were still bare once I completed this mission. He called it a Right of Passage, grinning as he remembered something from long ago.

I would never admit it to him, but I was really looking forward to getting that mask. If not for the extra protection it afforded my identity, then for what earning the mask meant: the completion of my fist real job.

After what felt like far too long, the sounds of footsteps was heard from outside the room. I could feel the liquid within the man that entered the room. I knew that a thought would have it expand into ice and bring down the overall risk of the job. One less lethal threat. A simple clench of a fist would make the action happen in but a moment.

But that would also go against everything I had ever told myself since the day of the exploding tree. I recognized the possibility of me having to use that method in self defense, but that moment was not the right time.

Instead, I snagged his radio off of his belt and closed the door behind myself when I left the room. Then, I iced over the whole thing to keep it from melting for awhile. My abilities had a tiny bit of control over unfrozen water, which is how I directed the moisture to move towards the door before cooling it down enough to begin freezing. The process took a full, tension filled, minute while my palms faced the wood and created the obstruction.

Once I was sure that the guy wasn't going to be going anywhere for awhile, I stalked down the hallway, eyes moving and senses on high alert. It was a good thing that they were, because it was only my ability to sense the liquid in others that kept me from walking around the corner and into the line of sight of a guard.

I closed my eyes, making sure that I was not close enough to the edge to be seen immediately if they came around the corner. It took a ton of concentration to feel out exactly where the man was in the darkened corridor. I heard the man shiver as I took a hold of the moisture in the air and pushed it down the passageway. Any time I put a liquid under my control, it cooled just slightly. I could not prevent that no matter how much practice I put into the endeavor.

I felt how the vapor interacted with the hallway that I pushed it down, getting a mental image of what I would expect. I was able to tell when the moisture ran into something, where it stopped, and if there was nothing there at all. It was all memory, however. The mental image that formed was me guessing the objects that the water vapor butted against.

While incredibly useful, this would tip someone off to my presence if they knew what they were looking for. It felt like mist brushing up against you when I used it, according to Shelly and a few other trusted individuals that I had used it on.

The hallway was clear with the exception of the single man. I picked up on the smell of smoke, telling me that the man was smoking and probably relaxed. I saw the flashlight beam aimed more towards the ground, probably being held in between his arm and his body. He was leaning against the wall and did not have any weapons drawn.

Idly, I wondered if power-outages were the norm. Most others would be on high alert at a power outage, being wary of attack. Even if what they were guarding wasn't exactly worth millions of Pokè, they still should have been on higher alert.

I made a mental note to not let that become a habit of my underlings if I ever went into a life of violent crime. Surprise inspections would happen all over the place. Cameras that run on an isolated generators watching their reactions-

"What's taking the prick so long?" the man muttered before pushing off of the wall.

I panicked and began to silently move back to where I had come, intent on hiding in one of the empty side rooms.

A clang from an empty paint can that my foot made contact with halted all movement in the area.

Then came the sound of metal brushing on leather. In a movement that was part instinct and part training, I pulled a small device that was stored in my pocket out, clicked the button on the top, then threw it around the corner.

Panicked scrambling, then "FWUUUSH!" I took control of the water that sprayed from the device and encased the man in an icy prison in under five seconds. Gunshots rang out and I hurried the spread, layering the ice over and over all along his body and silencing the bellow that he began to let out. I didn't need to create any holes for air, as his pistol broke the ice around his hand.

I heard yelling from deeper in the building and cursed before running down the now-soaked hallway. I grabbed the device, not keen on leaving evidence, and ducked into a side room when boots were heard climbing stairs nearby. A door opened and five guards went by, weapons extended. Another device of mine was sent in front and behind and two walls of ice were created. I focused more on the one closest to me, healing the opaque walls even as the guns tore holes in it. The flash of a pokeball on the other side had me abandon the walls and make the floors slick while I ran. Humans didn't have the pummeling power of a Pokemon. I didn't have the time, nor sufficient quantities of water, to create walls capable of holding both humans and Pokemon right then.

Instead, I made the floors slick as could be while I ran.

"What's goin' o-" the words of the man that was heading up the stairs were cut off when three finger-sized spikes of ice, quickly formed while I ran, were sent careening into his legs. He went down screaming and fell backwards in the opposite direction that he had been coming. I kicked the gun away from him and kept on running.

Two more men were sent slipping around and heads covered in a layer of ice before I found the box. It was much different from the surrounding containers and I went for it first. The lock was broke by spitting into it, as I was feeling rushed, and I opened it to find the thing I had been sent to retrieve.

The machine was hardly larger than a pokeball, but was worth easily thousands or hundreds of thousands times the amount of the most expensive pokeball. I didn't know what it did. I just knew the amount of Pokè sign associated with it.

The sounds of men shouting down the hallway had me replacing the device with a seashell, per Shelly's instructions. He said that every good thief had their 'signature.' Mine involved creating a tiny, almost totally unmarked, ice pearl and nestling the new creation in the shell. I then melted the frozen spit and moved it to join a hastily created puddle from ice that I created solely to melt a moment later, taking care of anyone trying to test the DNA evidence.

It was a hurried job, but I barricaded the door with another wall of ice before I ran.

It wasn't the stealthy getaway that Shelly had planned, but I was able to get out of there and change out of the clothes with no problem.

The neighborhood became more active as the morning went on and I was able to stroll back home, slouch pronounced and ear buds muffling the sounds of the outside world. My bored expression did not give away the adrenaline that pulsed deliciously through my system. I was scared, excited, and overwhelmed by what I had just done.

It felt so _good_.

A job well done, a new limit reached, those were the kinds of things that made me feel alive.

Adrenalin junkie indeed.

* * *

"I'm home!" I called out, per our tradition. The way back had allowed the adrenaline in my system to wear down a bit so I was only a little jittery once I unlocked our front door.

"In the kitchen!" Shelly responded and I moved towards the location. The man was still in his butler uniform, having only returned home recently, and he looked the name of professionalism as he cut the cucumber in thin, even slices.

"I hope everything went well?" Shelly asked, not turning around to see the device I had placed on the table.

"I was discovered a bit early," I admitted, before adding, "But none of them got close to me and I didn't leave any traces."

"You did remember-"

"Aside from the seashell, yes. With the pearl. I left that."

"Good," he declared and set a plate down in front of me. I extended the device towards him and began eating while he stored it away to be delivered some time later.

Shelly tossed a comb to me before sitting down to eat what he had prepared for us. I grimaced, remembering a time when I could allow my dirty blonde mop of hair to stay messy. Alas, Shelly was a butler through and through. He wouldn't let his son be too messy. He often jokes about how my messy bed-head "brings shame to the Kaito family name."

Though Shelly was only half-Asian, his parents coming from some tiny village in China, he embraced a lot of the culture in our home life. We ate with chopsticks as often as forks in our household and Jasmine tea was just as available as sweet tea.

I was having some Jasmine tea with rice-balls and cucumber as a snack, actually.

We were planning on having spaghetti for supper, if the noodles laying out were any indication. We flopped between cuisine on a daily basis with how Shelly enjoyed experimenting with all sorts of food. He had to know how to cook to be good at his day job. His 'night job,' as we called it, was a gentlemanly thief. A profession I had been training in for the last couple years.

One evening, when I was over at Shelly's place, I found myself insanely bored. Shelly had passed out on the couch, watching some movie that was still playing as I walked away.

I was sixteen, then, and found myself insanely curious about a certain room.

Shelly had told me that it was his private work room and I wasn't to enter it without permission. To ensure this, he kept it locked with a key that he always kept on his person.

Long story, short: I managed to break into the room using a trick with ice (surprise surprise). I was nearly shot full of darts, splattered with insanely sticky goo, and stabbed with wall spikes before a simple net scooped me up. I had begun thanking Arceus until I heard Shelly begin to chuckle from the doorway.

It turns out that the room was his gadget room, as I decided to label it. The items hanging on the walls and all over the room captured my attention and only the traps kept me from trying to go back there again. After I had explained how I had gotten into the room, he had told me that he needed the stuff for his job. That led to him explaining a bit more about his 'other' job.

Soon after, I was being trained on how to protect myself, get into places I shouldn't go, and all manner of useful, if not very legal, skills. He started training me after my seventeenth birthday and used his connections to get my mother a job far away.

Per Shelly's instructions, I asked to stay with Shelly for the duration of my senior year of high school. I had to get in contact with her basically every day, whether by social media, calling, or texting. He apparently promised to tone down his 'other' job while I was with him. He kept his promise and avoided going on anything truly dangerous or with high levels of risk.

"Your friends called while you were out," Shelly mentioned, midway through the meal.

"Noire and Blanc?" I'm not sure why I asked. It's not like I had all that many friends that I hung out with on a regular basis.

"Them," he confirmed. "They said that they wanted to hang out if you didn't have any plans."

I raised a questioning look at Shelly. He was the one who knew if I had training planned. He often came up with training on the fly or prepared it without me catching wind of it.

"Take the day off," he waved his hand and I, sensing the freedom of the movement, finished the last bit of the food and moved off to grab my phone and touch base with my friends.

I checked my phone to find all manner of texts from Noire that basically sounded like [Yo, Thaddeus! Wakey wakey!]

After reading through the accumulated messages, I responded to the most recent few and headed out.

* * *

Yeah, I know this chapter is short. I have a feeling that the chapter sizes will fluctuate slightly with the plot.

I know that the next chapter is almost fifty percent longer than this one because it is already written! Yes, I said it. Already. _Written_.

I decided to be intelligent about a new story, having started college and all, and decided that I would type up three chapters before I posted the first. If all goes to plan, which means as long as I remember to edit it, I plan to release the next chapter two weeks from now. While I could release all that I have right now, chances are that the wait for the chapter after those would be pretty long and I don't want to disappoint you all with that. So that's how I'm going to be doing this.

Also, I need to give credit for this story to Insomniac98338. Our relationship is kind of weird in how he comes up with ideas that are pretty darn good (most of the time) and I somehow hammer them out into works of fiction. He is responsible for quite a few of my characters in several of my stories and this one is no exception.

 **IMPORTANT!** If anyone here wants to make any sort of fanart of any of my stories, I give you full permission with only one condition: you let me know when it is done and let me see it! As I am an absolute terrible artist, I adore seeing any sort of art that people make about my stuff. Who knows, maybe it'll get to be the cover image for this story? I need to find one eventually.

And with that taken care of, tell me what you think! Reviews are the only way for me to know your thoughts!


	2. A Job Well Done

Phantom Thief chap 2

So nice having chapters prepared beforehand.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. Thaddeus' frozen self is mine, though.

* * *

Chapter 2

A Job Well Done

The Blanchimont siblings were my closest friends out of the few that I had. Despite this, they still did not know about my abilities. They thought that I had some condition that made it so that I did not produce the heat my body required and I needed all the insulation that I could get. That's the excuse my parents gave the school and what I stuck with for the most part when people asked.

Despite my parent's suggestions that I tell my friends, the few that I ever had, about my abilities, I never did so. And the longer I didn't, the weirder it felt to pull it up after not telling them for so long. None of my current friends knew anything about it, having been given the same excuse as Noire and Blanc.

Once I had started to train with Shelly, it was rather obvious that I should not tell others with how distinct my abilities were. Anyone with even pathetic deductive reasoning skills could figure out that I was the mysterious thief when both of us showed the ability to freeze stuff without the use of advanced technology or Pokemon. I was glad that I had only told two other people in my life and that Shelly had used his many contacts to get my DNA tested and not public doctors. Less people to connect the dots.

I walked into the pastry shop and met the siblings at the table they had claimed. The Limping Doughboy was our main hangout place because it was almost dead center between our two houses if you looked at where it was located on a map. Every other place that was available wasn't as convenient to meet up at and hang out or take care of homework.

I found out that Shelly knew the owner after bringing him there, once. From what Shelly was allowed to tell me, I found out that the guy was basically ex-military branch of the WPO. His pronounced limp told me that he had probably been injured and forced out because of it. Most of the time, he stayed out of sight and let his Lucario man the register. It wasn't rare to see the man do it himself, but it was more common for the Lucario to do it instead.

Surprisingly, almost all of his staff were Pokemon. This wasn't unheard of, but most places had a mix of humans and Pokemon or just mainly humans instead of mostly Pokemon.

"What'll you have?" Chatot, our waiter, swooped over to our table and we ordered our regulars: milkshakes for the siblings with a hot chocolate for myself. They knew of my aversion to cold things and didn't question my seemingly odd choice.

What sucked is that I did like ice cream. A lot. My younger self had enjoyed the treat. It was a hard blow when I had realized that ice cream was out of my reach along with most cold treats. Even particularly cold drinks were risky.

Hot chocolate was there to lessen the blow, thankfully.

"You really slept in today," Noire noted with her trademark grin lighting up her face.

I yawned, my adrenaline having been spent, and said, "Not long enough. I stayed up late to finish that essay in science." That was a lie. I finished that thing the day after it had been assigned to us and was waiting to turn it in. I was smart enough to get work done quickly. I knew, from experience, that Shelly would hound me if I didn't get things done soon after it was given out. He told me that getting things done quickly was good practice for when I really began taking on jobs as a gentlemanly thief. Sometimes jobs would come up unexpectedly and took up time that would've been used for other necessary things.

"I've still got to do that," Noire moaned, laying her head on her crossed arms with a pout.

Blanc grinned at his sister and declared, "You wouldn't have this problem if you were more like us."

"Bleh. Just as long as I don't have to dress like you two."

She was, of course, referring to Blanc's habit of dressing like a rock star and my necessary clothing choices. Noire was the only 'normal' looking teenager at the table. She wore a tee-shirt and some long pants. Nothing really interesting about her attire.

If only she was as normal as she looked.

"Here's what I was making for you," she said, passing a small stone across the table to me. Symbols and runes were etched into its surface.

"What's that one supposed to do?" Blanc asked, his normally active tone one of bland expectation. Much like a retail worker, he had grown used to such things and responded the same way he was expected to each time. I dubbed that voice his NPC tone, as he always seemed to have the same response to certain situations.

(More than once, I had pulled out a gifted talisman and watched the glaze appear in his eyes when he saw it. It was bizarre.)

Noire was a big believer in the supernatural. Spirits, ghosts, all that. And not Ghost-type Pokemon, no. Actual _ghosts._ She spent most of her time making and selling 'talismans' to other superstitious people over the internet. Even if the items probably did nothing at all, they did look interesting. The swirls over whatever material she used turned it into what could be considered an unusual work of art.

Several of her 'projects' had been suggested for art shows, to her apparent confusion. It was fun, watching her explain what each object was meant for to people who were not used to her. I have, on more than one occasional, had to explain to someone what an object was supposed to do in her stead when they waited for her to walk away.

"I know that you are sort of Japanese or whatever, so I made something that is supposed to protect you from snow spirits that are from over there. I even looked up the translations for some of the words!"

I saw that she had, indeed, looked up the characters for some of the words. Yuki-onna (雪女), or snow woman, was prominent on the front of it. It was touching, even if I was actually part Chinese, not Japanese. The first time I had received a talisman from her, I had been touched. The feeling persisted for awhile until it faded to the faint exasperated feeling that I felt just then. I wasn't quite to the point that Blanc had reached, just yet.

"Thanks. I'll be sure to keep it next to my bed."

She nodded cheerfully before warning me, "It only lasts for three weeks. So if you notice anything weird after it fades, let me know."

Some of her talismans actually didn't last long. Whenever her time limit ran out, I noticed that the ones with a warning would disappear. Vanish with no explanation. But never when we are looking or recording it. We, Shelly and myself, had actually put a camera on a piece of wood with a symbol on it for three months past the date it was meant to vanish. Once we gave up and put away the camera, turning away in the process, the wood was gone. Not a grain was left on that table.

We agreed to never speak of it again and pretended that the last three months of waiting never happened.

I nodded seriously. Even if I didn't believe in all those spirits and such, I believed in the power of her disappearing talismans. The ones she sold to others usually didn't disappear, those weren't legitimate. (According to Noire, they didn't work and just looked good.)

We made small talk about different things, mainly schoolwork.

"Did you ever figure out who was the one putting that graffiti on the side of the school?" I was referring to a recent string of incidents where someone was drawing lewd images on school walls. Blanc was a self-proclaimed 'junior detective' and was good at what he did.

Despite his relaxed, and often exuberant manner of speaking and dressing, Blanc was surprisingly intelligent. Not genius-level intelligence, no. Just above average. He was incredibly observant, if nothing else.

The school went to him more often than the police whenever stuff like this happened and it filled me with untold amounts of amusement that they relied on an eleventh grader for potentially legal matters. Noire, who was a senior, like myself, just called him an over achiever whenever he managed to solve cases that stumped professionals.

"Nigel Carson was the perp."

The image of the nerdy guy in my head rose and I raised an eyebrow, waiting for the inevitable explanation. It always came, one way or another. He spoke after taking another slurp from his milkshake.

"He thought he would frame the delinquents and get them in trouble. He happened to smell like paint last Tuesday, so I snuck a peek in his backpack and saw the cans in there."

"Huh," I said, surprised. Nobody would have suspected the guy. He was quiet and did his work most of the time. The delinquents must have pissed him off more than I thought.

"Yeah. The principal almost didn't believe me. Took forever to convince him."

"Here's your order," a familiar masculine voice appeared in our heads and we turned to see the Lucario setting our orders down on the table in front of their respective persons. A crimson armband was tied in its usual spot around his arm, close to his left shoulder.

We thanked him and returned to our conversation.

Some time after, when the levels of our drinks were nearing the bottom, the screeching of wheels caught our attention and my heart clenched when a van with heavily tinted windows went careening past the shop. It was immediately followed by three others of the same model, tinted windows and all.

I briefly worried that the device had been tracked and sent a quick text to Shelly.

[Warning: Just saw suspicious vans head by. Going in your general direction.]

"That was weird," I mentioned to the siblings after I sent the hastily typed text under the table, out of their sight. I had sent it without looking at the screen and prayed that it wasn't a jumbled mess of letters.

"Wonder what that was all about?" Blanc asked, his face turning pensive. From past experience, I knew that he was reviewing everything that he had seen in the last few days to see if there was any correlations that he could see.

"Maybe they're mobsters who's after the guy who stole their treasure. Wouldn't that be exciting!" Noire exclaimed and nearly caused me to have heart failure.

Blanc, Arceus bless his soul, captured Noire's attention in the moment that my face would have displayed my shock at her words. My eyes scanned the room and found that everyone was too far away to have heard her statement-wait, the Lucario had the hearing of a Pokemon! I noticed how his eyes, which were faced towards the customers ordering some pastries, flicked over to me.

"No, those are pirates you're thinking of. They have the treasure, you know. Mobsters would have stashes of drugs or stolen stuff or whatever."

I chuckled at Noire's pout at Blanc's words while quickly reading the text Shelly sent me. I read it in a nonchalant manner, pulling it out and glancing at the message before putting it away. It was something I did often enough that even Blanc wouldn't see something weird about the action.

[Item is already in transit. Will inform you of any new developments.]

My worry lessened with the news, but spiked when I saw that the Lucario was staring at me from the counter. He looked away when I turned right at him, but I knew that he had been watching me. Lucario could pick up on emotions, right? Was he feeling out the state of my mind? Did he feel a flash of shock and connect it with the vehicles that just went by? Did-

"Thaddeus? You about done?" Blanc asked while Noire was busy writing something down in a small notebook that she carried around all the time. I sipped up the last of the hot chocolate and joined them in leaving the shop, very carefully not looking at the Lucario.

A faint feeling told me that the Lucario was going to be trouble. But how? What did he really know about me?

* * *

"Are you in position?"

"I am."

"The target is walking down the street. Twenty meters from your position. Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be. Awaiting the signal."

Shelly was on a building down the street, watching the woman in question making her way closer to where I was sitting, pretending to read a book. It was a few months after my first job and this was the first coordinated job between the two of us. Shelly had sent me on some more burglar jobs in the time since then but wanted to be around on this one in case it went south.

The media had begun to connect the dots between the different jobs and mentioned that the only thing left behind was a seashell with either water in it or a half-melted pearl. Those were jobs that I hadn't been discovered and managed to get away, leaving the victim to find their safe, jewelry box, or whatever woefully empty or missing certain things.

As my popularity grew, so did the amount of names the public came up with for me. The Shell Swindler. Pearl Burglar. My favorite was the Shellfish Thief, honestly. I'm not sure why. It just stuck with me.

Both Blanc and Noire, despite my most subtle attempts to turn their attention away from the Shellfish Thief, became incredibly interested in the figure.

"Go ahead," Shelly whispered to me through my ear piece. I stored the device away and stood with my book held in my left arm. Since it was in the middle of November, my clothing choices weren't as odd-looking as they were in most other parts of the year. Shelly had been told about the woman we were targeting only the day prior and didn't have much time to plan. Luckily, at least for us, it had rained the evening before and the humidity was very high, just in case things went sour. That day was one of our last chances before she was suspected to travel to her clients. This would put the papers outside of our reach and we would fail.

Needless to say, this was unacceptable.

I kept my walk down the sidewalk relaxed and bobbed my head to the music that I was pretending to hear. I noticed the woman, similarly bundled up, and nodded to her as I went by, stepping into the very shallow puddle as I did so. I spent the few seconds that we were next to each other collecting moisture under the latches of the suitcase that she carried. It was the contents of the suitcase that we were after.

The woman had apparently stolen some sensitive data from the WPO and had recently found someone to sell the data to. Shelly had good reason to believe that she was on her way to a buyer right then and it was a perfect opportunity to snag the papers. Even better if we could do it without her knowing.

A scant few moments after we had passed one another, I turned the puddle of water that spanned the sidewalk into a slick, icy surface. At her scream of surprise at finding her feet thrown out from under her, I expanded the ice under the latches and forced them to pop open.

The result: the woman fell unceremoniously and the now-open suitcase allowed the sensitive documents to fall out and scatter over the area.

"Are you alright?" I called to her, putting worry into my tone as I rushed back and grabbed at the papers that were attempting to escape in the wind. At the same time, I melted the ice that had popped open the suitcase so as to be rid of the evidence.

"Ugh, damn ice," she groaned and began grabbing the few papers that remained. I passed her the papers I had 'gathered' and made a show of making sure she was alright and advising her to get an ice pack, to my own amusement, before bidding her to be careful and going on my way. The papers had been passed while held between fingers as to avoid leaving behind fingerprints.

I allowed myself a small grin as I tucked my book, now containing the documents, into my coat. I had stored a bunch of official-looking papers in it and performed a swap when her eyes had been occupied. She was too busy stuffing the papers in and making sure that no more were laying around to realize that only the few that she grabbed herself were the legitimate documents. Her paranoia at anyone seeing the loose papers prevented her from noticing that what she was handed was not what fell out of the case.

In actuality, she now had a suitcase that was mostly full of an online article that discussed the many ways of how one could cook oysters and clams. It was my replacement for the pearl that I couldn't leave behind in this job. I could have slipped in the pearl, and I had been tempted to, but it would have melted before anyone would have seen it. The shell would've been seen by her if I tried to put it in.

"I've got the documents. She still has a few papers, though," I whispered into the mic strapped to my chest, unseen beneath the clothing.

"Not our problem. We just needed to get most of them for this job. I'll pick you up outside that pastry shop you like."

"See you then."

It was with some heavy satisfaction that I made my way to the Limping Doughboy, ordered a cup of hot chocolate from the owner himself (luckily avoiding the weird Lucario), and relaxed at the tables outside the restaurant.

I waited and read the parts of the book that hadn't been removed for the purposes of the mission. My adrenaline wasn't pumping as heavily as it normally did, but I wasn't too disappointed. The job was done and done well. The woman would try and sell the incomplete data and probably be eliminated when the buyer realized that what they were being given was, at least somewhat, fake.

Admittedly, the thought of the lady getting killed as an indirect result of my actions made me feel some regret. Shelly hadn't sugar-coated what would happen to her if we did what we did and I had agreed to the job even then. The idea of causing someone's death, even indirectly, soured the taste of the hot chocolate.

I pushed aside the thoughts to deal with later and got in the vehicle that Shelly pulled up to the side of the shop. I pulled the papers out, carefully allowing my eyes to glide past the words without reading them, and put the gathered data in a plastic bag. The height of professionalism.

"Are you okay?" Shelly asked after a few minutes of silence that was only broken by the quiet playing of the radio.

"Feeling a little cold, but okay."

"Not what I meant," he said, pointedly.

"I agreed to do it, didn't I? I'll be fine as long as I'm not the one doing it." She knew what she was getting into when she stole those papers.

I was staring at the window, which was slowly fogging up due to the temperature differences that my presence caused in the warm vehicle, and saw Shelly side-eye me at my last statement.

"That's a dangerous way of thinking. Be careful."

I nodded, taking note of his warning tone. His advice, whether on training or in everyday mundane life, was something to pay attention to.

* * *

"He's so cool!" Noire gushed over the newspaper that displayed a hazy picture of the Shellfish Thief, which was the name the media had agreed on for the most part.

My last job had gone well enough, except for when one of the party goers stumbled into the room I was in and managed to snap a photo of me as I dove out of the same window I had entered from. That picture was on the newspapers the next morning and all over the net by the afternoon. If it was any consolation, the party had been in an entirely different area of the United States. Hopefully nobody would think that the Shellfish Thief would to teleport to the location. It would suck if the entire nation was put on high alert. Every robbery, with the exception of my first, had been done in the north-east section of the country. Hopefully that kept their attention from moving down south.

Shelly had changed my style to something a little more reflective of my abilities. It was an all white, slightly modified, dress suit with shortened coattails. Everything, from my shoes to my gloves to my head, was white with the exception to my mask. A thick mesh cloth covered up the back of my cranium while an oval mask obscured the front. (No skin was visible unless I stretched my arms out enough to move my sleeves out of the way.) The designs on the mask was the only hint of color that was a part of my outfit. Blue snowflakes adorned the surface and matched the insanely blue shade of my eyes.

"I can't believe he made such a rookie mistake," Blanc said, sipping a hot chocolate of his own. It was still cold outside so the joys of hot chocolate was being partaken by all.

"What? Letting himself being photographed?" Trust me, Blanc, I know. Shelly had given me an earful for that and I was constantly berating myself for such a mistake.

"No, that was bound to happen sooner or later with all the security around nowadays. He forgot to lock the door to the room."

His point was painfully valid. I had spent so much time making sure that there were no traps or alarms, several of which did need to be disarmed, that I forgot to make sure that the one obvious entryway was sufficiently barred. I could have iced it over at the very least.

In my defense, who leaves the door to a room holding an object worth several billion Poke unlocked?

"The guy is kind of new. Didn't he only show up sometime in the last six or seven months?" Eight, actually.

"That's probably why it happened. If he had taken a minute to check, he would've been fine. But now I know what I'm looking for!" He declared the last thing with a predatory grin as he studied every detail that he could glean from the photo.

Blanc had gained an obsession with the Shellfish Thief. The police had failed to discover the identity and I was quickly becoming the go-to discussion topic for most people who bothered to watch the news.

The reason: I wasn't the average thief. Every person I stole from was someone that wasn't exactly pure or innocent. If one dug into the details of how they accrued so much wealth, then not everything found would be purely legal. Some of my targets were even actual crime-lords. It was very rare that Shelly would accept a job on my behalf that would target someone that wasn't a crook in some form.

The public was mixed in their opinion of the Shellfish Thief, a name I was beginning to really bond to. On one hand, I was a thief, pure and simple. On the other, I was an honorable thief. I only ever took one item from those that were not crooks and sometimes never stole anything at all. On a few occasions, Shelly had me break into the homes of rich folk and place my shell and ice-pearl in places that were too obvious to miss.

Once, I had placed my thief's signature on the elderly Houndoom that snored away as I walked in and left without taking a thing. I would have paid money to see that Pokemon's reaction when it woke up.

As for Noire. To my complete befuddlement, Noire knew it was me. The first time she had shouted it out, we had been walking down the sidewalk, I had stumbled and fallen on my face.

"It makes sense! I've never seen you and the Shellfish Thief in the same room."

Fortunately, her evidence for me being the Shellfish Thief was...sparse.

Blanc looked at Noire's 'evidence' and promptly took me off of the list of suspects.

I needed to thank Noire for that. If Noire hadn't done that, then Blanc might have actually suspected me and uncovered the truth. I needed to offer to pay for her hot chocolate at some point. Get her a nice gift for her birthday, maybe?

"I'll see you guys tomorrow," I bid my friends goodbye in front of my house.

"I'm home!" I yelled into the house and slipped my shoes off. I heard the faint squeak of the back door opening and Shelly said, "I've got a surprise for you."

My guard instantly went up. While Shelly did have pleasant gifts or tidbits of knowledge as surprises, he also tested my reaction time and such now and again under the guise of a surprise.

Memories of being splattered with pink paint when I didn't notice a simple trap haunted my dreams now and again.

So, with my eyes scanning everywhere for a trick, I met him in the living room.

"Hey, son," Shelly said to me, sitting on the couch.

"This might-" another Shelly began, standing at the entryway of the room.

"Get complicated-" the first continued.

"Pretty quickly," they finished at the same time, both wearing identical, closed-eyed grins.

"You're the fake," I pointed at the first after studying the two of them for a moment.

The one I pointed at, the one next to the entryway, slumped down with a pout.

"How'd you know?"

"I know my own father. Now what's the trick to this?" I directed the latter part of that question to the real Shelly.

"Claves! Come help me with this," a voice shouted in my head, causing me to flinch and turn to the kitchen, which is where I felt the direction of the voice coming from.

The false Shelly turned, shedding their disguise as they made their way to the kitchen.

"Where'd you get a Zoroark?" I questioned Shelly. Shelly hadn't been out of the US in the past month and Zoroarks were native to deserted and uninhabited areas in Asia. It was rare to find one outside of Asia without a trainer.

"An associate of mine recently found that he has to go into hiding and requested that I house his partners until he returns. That, as you found out, was Claves."

"And this dork's name is Crescendo," Claves mentioned in my voice, having transformed into me while in the kitchen. She was carrying a platter with various fruits impaled on sticks laying on it.

"Ignore her. Our master never could get her to act dignified outside of missions," Crescendo, who turned out to be a Lucario, mentioned.

"At least I don't act as though there's a stick up my rear all the time," Claves countered without any heat, placing the platter on the short table that sat in the middle of the seats.

"Remaining dignified outside of assignments does not mean that I am uptight," Crescendo declared, his voice resigned. I had a feeling that they had done this song and dance before. The two Pokemon shared the couch while I chose the only other armchair that Shelly did not occupy.

Crescendo, strangely enough, gave off a vibe that reminded me a lot of Shelly. The black bow-tie that adorned his neck matched Shelly's perfectly. His fur was well-trimmed and his posture proper.

He mirrored Shelly far too closely.

"Do you two know one another?" I asked Shelly and Crescendo.

Shelly nodded, accepting a stick of impaled fruit from the Lucario in question.

"I taught him everything he knows. His master, my friend, dropped him off when he was a Riolu and begged me to whip him into shape."

Claves grinned, making me shiver at the feral look on my face. Did I ever make that expression?

Also, were my eyes really that blue? I ignored the urge to go study them in a mirror.

"I wish I had been around during that time. He always says that you had spunk way back then."

"Being rude and openly defiant towards our master isn't ' _spunk_.' Mister Kaito taught me the value of listening to others and I emulate the way he acts as much as I can. You could learn a thing from him."

Claves huffed at the suggestion.

"Where did you learn how to train a disobedient Pokemon?" I inquired, munching on the sandwiches that Crescendo had prepared.

"Butler school," Shelly answered with, yet another, closed-eyed smile.

The room, Shelly aside, deadpanned.

"Bull," Claves said, leaning back and returning to her true Pokemon form. Now and again, I discovered that he had some bizarre skill and his answer to where he learned that skill was the same, every time.

* * *

Shelly hinted at their master having to stay in hiding for awhile, so I was required to take on the two of them as temporary partners. Shelly said that it would be good for me.

Unlike long ago, when children could catch a Pidgey and go on a journey, the government required people to wait until they had a high school education before they started any sort of journey. And, for those who wanted to go on a journey, most schools offered programs to help educate people about what all was necessary for taking care of Pokemon.

Some went to our after school program even if they had no intentions of going on a journey. Many kids had Pokemon as pets and friends. Blanc and Noire did, and Shelly made me start going since I had never had a Pokemon partner or pet.

"What are you doing here?" Noire asked when she saw me walking up, hands in pockets and usual slouch showing my abject boredom to the world. For once, my headphones didn't sit in my ears. I knew that I would need to appear to listen, so I didn't bother getting them out.

"Shelly is making me learn how to interact with Pokemon after one of his friends asked us to keep an eye on two of his partners while he's overseas." That was our cover story for anyone who wasn't in the loop.

The siblings went silent. They knew that I couldn't be around some species, as any cold attacks would negatively affect my health. I could tell that they were guessing in their heads, but neither said anything.

"Huh. What kind are they?" Blanc eventually inquired.

"Zoroark and Lucario."

I left the two of them bug-eyed when the teacher called me over for a introductory practice battle. Mr. Miles, the teacher that led the after school program, told me that he had every new member that joined up late have a battle so he could see what level of proficiency that member was at. I had told him that I was interested in possibly going on a journey after high school, though it was a bald-faced lie. I was going to become a thief. Nothing was going to change that. He just paid more attention to those who he thought would actually need the knowledge and I took advantage of that.

"Crescendo, come on out," I muttered after pulling the pokeball out of my jacket pocket. I had made sure to put Crescendo in my right pocket and Claves in my left so to not let her out unintentionally. While her quirks did sometimes amuse me, I wasn't about to give her the opportunity to mess with me in front of my friends.

Crescendo appeared in front of where I stood, in a square for the trainer to yell instructions from, and promptly straightened his bow-tie.

"I suppose that it is time to fight?" Crescendo asked, standing with his back straight and arms behind his back. He was the definition of proper. I still sometimes superimposed the image of Shelly over him. A shorter version, though.

"I think so. Who are we fighting?" I directed the question to Mr. Miles, who was looking a bit surprised at Crescendo.

"Ah, let's see. How about, yes, Blanc! You're up!"

Blanc strode to the other side of the field and sent out Fontaine, his Dewott that he had gotten sometime in his Sophomore year.

(I had questioned them once on why their entire family consisted of French names and they told me it was because their father's side was French and their mother loved the culture. I understood pretty well, considering my father's habit of pulling in Asian culture.)

When Fontaine came out, he mimicked Blanc when he posed dramatically and you could see the crowd sweat-dropping at the pose.

"Are both sides ready?" Mr. Miles asked and, once both sides gave confirmation, he gave the go ahead.

Blanc took advantage of Fontaine already having his scalchops out and had him use Razor Shell.

"Metal Claw," I said loud enough for Crescendo to hear me and watched as the two attacks clashed. A power struggle ensued where the two Pokemon pushed against one another. I saw that it wasn't going to end anytime soon, so I yelled, "Close Combat!"

* * *

"Now the two of you be more careful from now on," the nurse warned Blanc before handing him back the pokeball containing Fontaine.

Blanc assured the nurse that he would before we left the Poke-center.

"Sorry about that, again. It was my first time battling with Crescendo and I didn't think that would happen."

Evidently, Crescendo's Close Combat was much more powerful than what I expected. The end result: Fontaine badly sprained his right arm while blocking the attack and the match was called off. We thought it was broken from the bruising that began to develop almost immediately, so we were both excused to get him checked out. I had spent a greater part of the trip either apologizing or fretting over the state of Fontaine.

As you already know, I didn't flinch away from violence. I did what was necessary when it became necessary. The reason for my reaction with Fontaine was because I had a constant fear that I would hurt someone unintentionally despite having my abilities on lockdown at any time that I didn't need them. I had only ever accidentally injured myself with my abilities, yet still had the irrational fear that I would someday accidentally hurt someone I cared about.

This led to me being extra careful and actively making sure that I did nothing to injure anyone I didn't mean to hurt.

"Relax! It was a battle and you are just getting some experience. You did pretty well."

"For the ten seconds the battle lasted," I muttered.

"Shut it! Let's go celebrate your first battle!" He grinned and shifted the direction we were traveling slightly and giving off such a cheerful air that one wouldn't know that his partner had been injured just half a hour earlier.

Technically not my first if you counted all the fights I had gotten in with other Pokemon using my own abilities, but I wasn't about to fill him in on that particular detail.

From the direction we were headed, I knew we were going towards our favorite hangout joint and asked, "Should we text Noire?"

"Nah," Blanc waved the idea off. "I need a break from her right now. She got interested in some Asian stuff when she made that thing for you and has been going nuts back home."

"I thought I saw her eating-"

"Don't get me started on the food! She's been making such weird dishes."

"Preaching to the choir, Blanc," I said, pointing at myself with a raised eyebrow.

He had met my dad plenty of times. Their family have visited Shelly and myself at our home many times for both meals and celebrations, so he knew how my dad was.

"Right, how is your dad?"

"He's been good. He's out of the country right now and the house has been quiet." Quieter than normal, anyways. Shelly usually had some low-volume music running throughout the house that I never bothered to turn on, which left the place almost eerily silent to those who weren't used to it.

"Gonna finally take advantage of him being out of town and throw a party?" Blanc asked with a suggestive grin.

"Nah, I'm not in the mood to die any time soon."

* * *

And there's another chapter out. Thanks to all who reviewed! The plan is the same: two weeks. I'll let out the next chapter on the fourteenth of September.

In other news, college is going well and I have enough time, at the moment, to write now and again. No big projects looming, not counting Space Hardware Club, so my schedule should stay the same for awhile longer.

Reviews feed what is left of my soul. :)


	3. Chilly Days, Snowy Nights

Phantom Thief chap 3

Nice to have chapters prepared ahead of time. Allows me to relax and play some Overwatch. If anyone here plays on PC and sees a Junkrat by the name of TBirdGuy on the American servers (though I do piddle around on the others sometimes), then that's me. But if the Junkrat isn't doing awesome, it's definitely an imposter...Yup...Imposter... Anyways, I look forward to the rare moment of coming into contact with one of you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, Junkrat, nor most of the characters in this...yeah, most of the credit goes to Insomniac98338 for a great deal of the characters in this. The plot is MINE, though. I lay my claim to that.

Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 3

 **Chilly Days, Snowy Nights**

We entered the Limping Doughboy and laid claim to a booth in the corner before waiting for someone to come take our order. I saw that the Lucario was manning the register and it wasn't long before wing-beats could be heard and Chatot appeared next to our table. We placed our orders and I spoke with Blanc for while we waited.

The door to the back opened and my eyes flicked towards the movement in what was human instinct that had been sharpened with paranoia. The sight of the kid that emerged had me letting down my guard. He walked through the door with two filled plates and brought them to our table.

"Thanks, Sigma," I said, nodding to the boy with a grin. Sigma was, from what I was told, the owner's kid. Though judging from the old man's age and their lack of physical similarities, it was rather obvious that he was not his biological child.

Sigma looked to be about ten, had braided back dirty blonde hair, and was the only one I had ever met with eyes as blue as mine. The first time we had met eyes, we both had a moment of temporary shock. Noire had promptly shattered the silence that had started up with the, at the time, seven year old and said that Sigma looked like a miniature version of me, minus the way we wore our hair and our clothing choices. If I didn't always need to be bundled up, then I probably would've matched his go-to look of a button-up shirt and long pants.

Even my dad said that we looked incredibly similar. It was only after meeting Sigma that I understood the surprised air that the owner had attained when he first laid eyes on me. So far, aside from our clothing choices and personalities, the only differences between us were his round glasses, the newspaper boy hat he liked to wear, and his lack of icy abilities.

Now if he began developing the last thing, I would be having a very serious talk with my parents as I had really wanted a little brother when I was younger that, alas, never came to be.

Not a younger sister, though. I was adamant about that. Too many responsibilities associated with being the older brother to a sister.

"You're welcome," he chirped once he laid the plates down.

"I made a new friend today! Want to meet her?" Probably due to his ever-cheerful nature, Sigma had the uncanny ability to befriend Pokemon like it was nothing. And his friendship wasn't limited to the small and fluffy sort of Pokemon. No, Sigma did not discriminate one bit. He befriended Pidgey and Scyther alike. Poisonous? Blades for hands? Literally emits toxic fumes capable of knocking out a room in moments? All of them are friend-worthy in his eyes, to the owner's slight chagrin. I sometimes wondered just how much of the Pokemon food he bought actually went to their own Pokemon and not wild Pokemon, but never asked.

Now and again, he brought a newly-made friend to the Limping Doughboy. It was always entertaining to see non-locals react to gigantic Pokemon sitting outside the restaurant, unable to enter due to their size. Just about everyone in town was aware of the cheerful little boy with the gift of attracting all sorts of Pokemon and befriending them.

It was becoming more and more rare for him to say he had found a new friend, so I easily responded with an enthusiastic, "Sure!"

Normally, I really didn't care much for kids. Sigma, however, was one of the few exceptions. Despite his cheerful nature, he was surprisingly mature for his age. I couldn't resist ruffling his hair in a fond manner once in a while as a greeting.

We ate a bit of what had been brought to us as Sigma jogged into the back. I noticed with some surprise that the female that Sigma brought out was not a Pokemon, but a girl around our age. (Sigma, while a Pokemon magnet, had a harder time interacting with kids his age. Because of this, I normally only ever saw him with Pokemon and the occasional older kid.) She had bright red hair that, at least to me, seemed completely natural. He held her hand and she seemingly allowed him to drag her out of the back with a small smile.

"These are my other friends," Sigma said to the girl once he brought her over to where we sat.

"Nice to meet you. This is Blanc and I'm Thaddeus." I took care of introducing Blanc to avoid his tendency for introducing himself, and others, in the most dramatic ways possible.

The fact that he typically introduced his parent with spotlights, confetti, and sometimes music in the background tells you the extremes he goes to in introductions. I pitied his first girlfriend, if he ever made time for someone else.

Blanc raised his eyebrow towards me, but only put on a charming smile and extended his hand to the girl, who shook it with a grin before beginning to shake my hand and jerking her appendage away upon contact with my own.

"Er-sorry. My hands are always really cold," I apologized. It was something I struggled to control during colder times of the year. My fingers curled around the warm styrofoam container with some visible relief. I had taken to wearing gloves whenever I was outside due to the ache that would embed itself in my bones whenever my hands stayed out in the cold elements for too long. The cold season was my least favorite time of the year, no contest.

She nodded, rubbing some heat back into her hands and not saying a word.

"She doesn't talk much," Sigma says to fill the silence. "Though I think-"

The red-headed girl jerked her head towards the door moments before it opened somewhat roughly in order to admit a guy with the bluest hair I had ever seen.

It looked completely natural, which just made it more strange to my eyes.

He wasted no time in marching over to the girl and the glare in his eyes made me stand up and block his path. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed several members of the Limping Doughboy tense up and watch carefully from a distance. I took note of the possible backup, then spoke.

"I'm not sure what your problem is with her, but you'd better tone down the attitude around Sigma's friend." I didn't know the girl's name, yet I was fully prepared to defend her from this guy if Sigma was vouching for her.

If it was anyone else, beyond my family and the siblings, I probably wouldn't have lifted a finger beyond preparing for anything headed my way.

The guy didn't say anything, but I felt a hand grab my shoulder and found the girl going around my side and made a gesture that I could tell meant that we should calm down. She pulled over a napkin and, with a pen she pulled out of a pocket, she wrote down a note.

"Oh, he's your brother? My bad."

I sat down once I understood that it was just a sibling squabble sort of deal. The others also stood down and the underlying tense atmosphere that had been forming dissipated. For the next two minutes, Sigma, Blanc, and myself watched as the guy berated the girl and the girl attempted to explain-both staying totally silent. There were hand gestures, but not a hint of sign language.

"Am I the only one missing out on what the heck is going on?" Blanc whispered to us.

"It's like they can read one another's mind," I whispered back, apparently loud enough for the two of them to hear as they turned to us and the girl wrote down another note.

[Apologies for my brother. He was just worried about me after I left without telling him. I need to head back home.]

"Aww, but we only just started to play," Sigma whined. "Make sure to come visit soon."

She nodded with a smile before writing down that she would and succumbing to her brother's silent beckoning from the door of the shop. We watched as the two of them moved out of the shop and walked out of sight.

"Sigma," the old man called from the back and Sigma apologized before getting back to work.

"What was that all about?" I asked Blanc. He was the most likely to derive some meaning that I had obviously missed from that encounter.

"Beats me," he said before taking a bite out of his croissant.

I hung my head at the nonchalant response and gave up trying to read into the pair that were about as strange as the Blanchimont siblings.

And wasn't that an odd thought?

We spent some time eating at a relaxed pace and I was interrupted when someone tapped on my shoulder. I turned and had to keep myself from going beyond the surprised look and letting out any indication of my agitation that I felt upon finding out who it was. This had to be handled carefully.

I pushed back what I wanted to say and smiled as I let out, "Oh, hey! Blanc, this is Tom. He works with my dad now and again."

The man, whose name I had changed on the fly, went with it and nodded with a smile.

"Yeah. Hey, I need to talk with you for a minute. It's about a possible job opening."

"Oh?" I raised my eyebrow. Why the heck was he talking to me? This sort of stuff went through Shelly, typically.

I excused us for a minute and I left the shop with him and met him in the alley next to the place.

"Why the heck are you coming to me?" I hissed out, my tone giving away my irritation for the first time since I saw Francis, which was his real name. Francis did work with my dad now and again, that part was true. But the nature of their interactions usually consisted of Francis acting as a go-between for the third party that wanted our services. I had met him a few times in the past when Shelly had brought me along to learn how such things worked. He had never come to me directly and something told me that he really wasn't supposed to.

Francis, a guy who was hovering at around five feet, had dark brown hair, and looked, quite frankly, quite forgettable, made a gesture for me to calm down.

"I've been trying to get into contact with your old man-"

"He's busy with another job," I interrupted him. Francis wasn't our only middle man, though we did meet with him more often than most others. We had precautions in place so that no two middle men ever came into contact with one another when they needed our services. Avoided possible trouble with conflicting parties. The downside to this was that, if Shelly was out on a job, I had few ways of contacting them.

Francis grumbled under his breath for a moment before saying, "I've got a job-"

"No," I immediately denied his request. "Shelly told me-"

"I know what your old man told me but will ya just listen to me!" Francis snapped at me.

I made a gesture for him to go on. Might as well let him get it out of his system.

"It's nothing you haven't done before. The client just wants you to break into some vehicle and snag a pokeball that'll be inside."

"I don't-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know that you don't like taking people's Pokemon. If it makes you feel better, then I'll let you know that you'll be taking it from an infamous collector. I don't know all the details, but word on the street is that he doesn't exactly get all the parts of his collection legally."

I halted my instinctive desire to continue to deny the job and thought about it. Francis knew how my dad was when it came to jobs. Our methods and the stuff we simply would not do. Shelly had been working with Francis for awhile, so I knew that he wouldn't do something to force us to alienate him from further jobs. Bad for business on both ends.

"When is it going down?"

"Tomorrow night. Somewhere close to Toronto."

Canada? Well that was still close to the areas I was focusing on. I would need to add some layers under my normal uniform-

"Just how much is this job paying?"

Francis named a figure that, as far as I knew, was a little above average than what our jobs normally paid. Even with the hefty sum that middle men asked for when it came to jobs, we would still be making a fair chunk of change. If I was a greedy person, I probably would have agreed right then and there. Instead, I spent a few more minutes questioning him about the details of the job. He was surprisingly patient. He must have really wanted it accepted.

"Fine, I accept. Leave the info at the normal place."

Francis grinned and patted me on the back, suddenly in good spirits, before making his way out of the alleyway.

I made a mental note to drop by the park later and retrieve whatever info Francis wanted me to know. None of our middle men, as far as I knew, were aware of where we lived. We were extra cautious so that, if we happened to be betrayed, nobody would set traps up to get us when we returned after a job or something. Now and again, we had the middle men use one of the several dead-drops around town to leave us information. The one in the park was a small panel on a street lamp that was nearly impossible to see unless you were looking for it.

I went back to Blanc and told him that the job hadn't looked all that good and I had declined. Blanc raised an eyebrow but never made a comment on it, which worried me somewhat. A suspicious Blanc was a dangerous Blanc to deal with. It was going to be annoying to be extra cautious around him from then on. I cursed Francis for not meeting me in a more private manner!

Some more time was spent talking to Sigma and finishing what was left of the snack before giving them my farewells and heading to the park. I spent plenty of time on my way to the park making sure that I wasn't followed. Taking strange routes and sometimes creating loops to catch anyone that was tailing me.

The life of a thief was full of paranoia.

* * *

This isn't a good idea," Crescendo said, once more, while I donned the trench coat that hid most of my uniform. The mask was left in the bag I carried around along with the rest of my supplies. Just as long as nobody checked under my clothes or dug deep in my backpack, under the random school supplies I had put in there to deter the curious, I would be okay.

Then again, if the wrong people were already detaining me and searching my stuff, it would be too late. So the precautions were sort of useless, even if they made me feel better.

"I've agreed to the job. There's nothing for it now," I said in a final tone. Crescendo had been urging me to drop the job while Claves had been more or less neutral on the matter.

All she said was, "If he thinks he's ready for a job, leave him be."

"Dad won't be back until two days from now and this job is time sensitive, so I've got to take it or risk losing validity in the face of future clients."

Crescendo did not say anything more, but his silence told me that he still did not think I should do the job. It was a bit of a relief when I put them in their pokeballs and I didn't have to deal with the somewhat oppressive silence that had developed as I got ready.

I met Francis at an abandoned building not two blocks away from where my first job went down. The place was really run down and empty save Francis and the Abra that waited for me inside. I had donned the mask in an alley a little ways before I got to the building in case he hadn't been alone and was glad that I had. I didn't fancy getting my face getting plastered everywhere and having to go into hiding.

I would never be able to face my mom again.

"Finally!" Francis exclaimed. "Here's a picture of the vehicle. There's some security around the area, but you should be okay. If you can't get in before 10:25, there will be a distraction at 10:30 and you-"

"What sort of distraction are we talking about?"

This was the first time I had heard about anyone else being involved in this job. This was something I should have been told so I knew who to trust or otherwise.

"I don't know but you need to get going. Here's the address so get going! Abra here will wait for you at the drop-off site to return you here."

Abra didn't waste time and teleported us to an equally abandoned building before laying on an old couch and beginning to snooze.

Once I had changed my watch to the correct time, needing to after moving to the eastern time zone, I checked my location and moved out. I had already memorized the route and I was on the top of a roof across from the casino in little time. I checked my watch and saw that it was 10:09 right then.

I had no idea what sort of distraction 'they' would have, but I wanted to go ahead and get this job done without it. My senses spread out automatically and I was surprised to find the air suddenly filled with snowflakes. While I shivered, I silently cheered and found myself glad that it had begun snowing. Snow meant more methods of protecting myself, even with the real risk of freezing.

I moved away from the edge of the building and called out Claves.

She blinked rapidly at the high wind that buffeted the building we stood on and observed the area with a quick look.

"How far do your illusions stretch and to what extent?" I had done some research on both Lucario and Zoroark, but she knew her own limits and abilities better than any online article.

"I should be able to cover the entire outside of the casino with a basic illusion, sensations included. What do you have in mind?"

"Snow. Lots of snow," I answered with a small grin.

* * *

My watch told me it was 10:18 when I found the vehicle I had been assigned to break into. Two guards lay entombed in igloo-like cocoons, both unconscious. I had knocked them out rather easily and wasted-no, spent some time making sure that they wouldn't freeze to death. The way I had build them, the cocoons would preserve a great deal of their heat and they would probably be found long before they were in trouble of never waking up.

Though I knew that the snow wasn't heavy at all, it was difficult to see through the heavy snowfall that appeared to limit visibility to a few yards at any time. Claves did a great job with her illusions and the only way I knew that it wasn't actually real was because I couldn't sense any of the stuff beyond what was actually there.

"There are no other beings in the parking lot," Crescendo reported, his eyes closed and aura sensing organs spread. He had been incredibly useful in finding routes through the guards that patrolled the parking lot and casino grounds as a whole. The snow made things harder to sense for me, so he was vital in making this job go smoothly.

"Got it." I moved to the window of the vehicle and spent a minute searching before I found it: a minuscule scratch on the window. Working quickly, I filled the hole with water, froze it, filled the resulting enlarged hole with water, then repeated the process until a tiny chip of glass came off. I carefully used the imperfections I found to make the hole big enough for me to reach through to the glove box. This method was particularly risky because some vehicles had very sensitive security systems. I got lucky and it did not have such countermeasures.

Inside, as the information said, was a pokeball. I made sure that there were no other pokeballs that could have been the real target before turning to Crescendo and asking him to lead us out of there.

We were leaving the parking lot at 10:27 and meeting with Claves behind a building near the casino two minutes after that.

At that time, it finally occurred to me.

How was I supposed to let 'them' know that I was done?

An explosion rocked the ground, nearly toppling me if Crescendo hadn't steadied me. I ran out from behind the building and saw a plume of smoke beginning to rise in the air from a wall that ran along the perimeter of the casino. A hole had been blown into existence and the area was engulfed in flames. Only the knowledge that the area near the hole had been created was simply manicured lawn kept me from staring in horror at the sight. As it was, I felt my fingers curling into fists and cursed Francis heavily for the crap he had gotten me into.

"You can go ahead and begin to let the illusion go," I instructed Claves while returning Crescendo to his pokeball. She slowly reduced the amount of snow falling so as to not tip too many people off and eventually declared that she was good to go. I returned her to her pokeball without another word and made my way back to Abra, the stolen pokeball weighing down my pocket. I did my best no to snap at the small guy when I said, "I'm ready to go back."

He went up to me and got a hold of my leg before I felt the familiar sensation of teleporting.

The first thing I saw once the world returned to normality was the extra five guys in the room that should not have been there. I stepped back and nearly tripped over something soft-

I nearly tripped over Francis, who was far too pale and didn't have a spark of life in his eyes. I'm pretty sure that the single hole in the side of his head may have had something to do with that.

Abra teleported somewhere else, without me, and the room burst into motion. I jumped out of reach of the two that rushed forward to grab me and formed spikes of ice that shot forward and stopped the three others from drawing what I assumed were guns from various hidden locations on their persons.

My mind went into a frenzied state as I formed walls of ice and dodged hands and it took one of them finally getting their gun out using a hand that didn't have a melting spike in it and pointing it at me for me to snap.

* * *

I was always aware of liquids. Even in incredibly dry places, I could feel some sort of moisture somewhere.

Alabama had decent levels of humidity most of the time. I always felt it. A constant reminder of the danger I could cause others. The room I left was full of liquid. Most of it had frozen solid. I sent the slightly-scattered remains of Francis an apology as I stumbled from the building and grabbed my backpack. I changed my clothes, storing away my stained uniform, and began walking on autopilot until I collapsed.

* * *

I've noticed that I have a habit of ending chapters with a character in some sort of unconscious state, sleeping or otherwise, and starting chapters with them waking up. It's something that I've done a good bit in my other stories.

Thanks to all those who pointed out my mistakes in the last chapter. I really need to stop editing my chapters at ten in the evening. I can hardly speak beyond monosyllable grunts around that time and my writing isn't too much better. I hope I did a better job this time.

Thanks to all who reviewed! Even if I am too busy to respond sometimes, I do appreciate it. I look forward to whatever comments you have on this!

The plan is the same for the next chapter. Two weeks from right now. 28th of September, 2016. I hope you are all looking forward to it!


	4. The Aftermath

Phantom Thief chap 4

Just a notice. No lemons here.

You would think that I would feel bad for doing this to my characters.

* * *

Chapter 4

 **The Aftermath**

The first thing I was aware of was a strong scent of flour. The next was the sounds of food being prepared. The next-

"I can tell that you are waking up." An unwelcomingly familiar voice greeted my recently awakened mind.

I already knew what I would see when I opened my eyes and wasn't surprised when the Lucario that I was completely certain was suspicious of me standing over me.

I cleared my throat, then said, "Sorry for the trouble. I'll just-"

"You will stay right where you are," the old man finished for me and walked into the room with the assistance of a cane that never seemed out of arms reach from him. He sat down in a chair that the Lucario pulled up and I waited for him to speak first.

"Leon here found you out back last night, out cold. Mind filling an old man in on why you were unconscious behind his place with a knife wound that would normally require stitches if Leon didn't have his handy Healing Pulse ready to use? Keep in mind that there _is_ a right answer here."

I had never heard the old man speak in such a cold, business-like tone before and I would have been perfectly okay going my whole life without getting to know it.

To buy time, I asked, "Knife wound?"

"Ripped a line in your shirt and gave you a small laceration. Nothing life threatening even if Leon hadn't healed it. Might have left a scar if left untended for too much longer, but nothing beyond that."

So that's his name. He never wore a name tag, so I never knew. Well, it was more like I probably heard it and simply forgot. That was a bad habit of mine.

I looked down and saw what he meant. A thin line was cut in my bloodied shirt sleeve. My fingers parted the fabric and found a thin, pale line across my bicep. It was barely visible beneath the blood that was smeared around the area. I faintly remembered one of the men lunging with a knife and I guess that I only used my abilities right after-

A faint shudder was unavoidable when the memories of the night before tickled through my brain. In a moment, I had the reaction reigned in and shoved the emotions away to deal with at a later time.

Healthy? No. Necessary? Right then, yes.

I began to stand while thanking them, but found a paw gripping my shoulder and pushing me back down.

"I am waiting for an answer," the old man, Daniel, said. Both his hands rested on the cane as he leaned forward expectingly .

"Some thugs tried to mug me last night and I ran after one of them got me with his switchblade."

"If you are going to lie, I would suggest doing it when there isn't a Lucario in the room skilled enough to tell when you aren't being entirely truthful."

I was about to insist when my backpack was pulled into view and my mask was pulled out of the top. A faintly crimson stain was visible from where a few shards of one of the men's semi-frozen blood had stuck, melted, and evidently dried.

My mouth snapped shut and I sighed, caught. I idly wondered when I would hear the sirens.

"Spill," Daniel ordered. My resistance crumbled.

"I had a job. It turned out that the middle man was set up, killed, then they tried to off me. I managed to get out alive." There. Entirely truthful. Now how to escape and contact Shelly?

Daniel glanced at Leon, who had maintained his position behind me, and apparently was okay with whatever Leon said to him.

"Fine. Get your stuff and get going."

I blinked quickly and looked at the man, wondering if he was serious. My half-formed plans slid away in my confusion.

"Why?"

He managed to figure out what I was really asking about.

"Leon told me that whatever you did, you didn't take it very well. I can tell that what you did was probably violent. You may be a criminal but you haven't done anything that intentionally put anyone at risk. That's better than what I did in my youth."

His youth?

"As long as what you do is not hurting anyone in any big fashion, I will look the other way. If I think that you will be a danger to anyone here or bring the wrong crowd in this direction, then I _will_ destroy you. Until then, we go about our lives as though this incident never happened."

I gripped the lifeline with both hands.

"Yes sir. I understand."

* * *

I left the Limping Doughboy through the back, not wanting to catch Sigma's attention, and got home without any other incidents. I kept out of most people's eyes and took precautions to hide the blood until I was able to grab a spare shirt from one of our drops. We had them placed carefully, just in case our home was ever compromised and we needed supplies. Once I had changed and cleaned the blood from my arm with a wet-wipe, I made my way back home.

I was locking the door with a heavy sigh when I felt a chill in the air. No, not a literal chill. That's not worth mentioning considering who I am. No, what I felt was a feeling that could only be described as a chill that forced the hair on my neck to raise and dread to appear.

"Mind telling me why I returned to an empty home and had to wait until almost noon for my son to get back?" Huh. Shelly got back early.

I considered running right then. The cowards route. Really considered it. I had my movements planned out and everything. I had even mentally come up with an excuse to one of our other middle men who could get me a fake ID for whatever country I decided to flee to.

Instead, I turned around and told him the truth.

"Francis is dead. He was set up and I was caught up in the trap. I managed to get out uninjured." I purposely left out the scratch that had been healed.

The chill vanished at 'dead' and my father was looking at me worriedly at the end of it.

"Tell me everything," he instructed, leading me to the living room and sitting me down with a pot of tea that he had already prepared. Something told me that he had been sitting in there for awhile, waiting for me.

"Francis approached me at the Limping Doughboy and asked for a word." I started with that and told him the whole thing in the same blank tone that I began with. Even the deaths of the men were summarized in a single sentence: "They tried to kill me and, when I saw there was no other choice, I panicked and turned most of their bodily fluids into ice."

Only, it wasn't panic that drove me to that course of action. I knew what I was doing. The option was at the forefront of my mind the second I realized that I was being attacked. I could have frozen certain limbs. Could have tried disabling the guns. I could have done so many other things, but immediately went to the option that I _knew_ would solve the problem.

But I didn't. And I didn't want to tell Shelly that.

* * *

I didn't expect to be able to fall asleep, but I knew that I would have nightmares if I somehow managed to shed my consciousness.

Imagine my surprise when, instead of reliving my far-too-easy killings, I saw a younger me nimbly dodging a ball that had managed to break through my icy defenses. It was a memory I could recall being somewhat fond of.

"Stopping," Shelly announced and came closer from where he stood behind one of the machines that shot out a plastic ball at high enough speed to leave behind a red mark if they managed to hit. We were playing a game that involved improving my skills with my abilities and natural reflexes simultaneously.

It wasn't until I was doing the same exercise with baseballs at much higher speeds that I realized that Shelly had been training me for a very long time without me even noticing.

"How are you feeling?" Shelly asked while tossing me a towel to wipe away the sweat that had been running down my face, not drawn away to be used in the most recent ice sculpture. It was good practice in making sure that I affected only the water that I wanted and not living people instead. I could easily tell the difference, most of the time, but I wasn't complaining then about the practice.

The game was relatively simple. Three decently sized pools of water laid in a triangle shape with me at the center. Filling the spaces between the pools stood three different ball launchers. Shelly would call out a specific pool, changing the labels every new game, the name of a Pokemon, and I would have approximately ten seconds to pull water from the selected pool and create a hollow statue of the announced Pokemon before the ball fired. (Thankfully, they did not have to be life-sized.) Shelly would sometimes stay silent and I would have to wait and dodge the ball instead of attempting to block it. I earned a great many smacks before I began to get the hang of it. My timing was impeccable after so many red marks.

We had been going on for the last forty-five minutes, which was the longest time I had ever practiced with my powers at the tender age of eight. I couldn't help but look at the younger version of me who was still able to wear regular clothes for the most part with some jealousy.

"A little tired," little Thaddeus admitted, kind of bending the truth. Physically, I was very tired. Mentally, I knew that I was exhausted. I was glad that Shelly had noticed the glazed over look my eyes had started to get from the headache that came around when I used my abilities too much in too short a time period.

The dream, strangely lucid up to that point, began to waver and wobble. The air took on a coolness that I knew had not been a part of that day.

"Well if you are up to it, I want you to try something new."

I looked at the dream Shelly with some confusion. This wasn't a part of that day at all. Shelly had told me to go inside and take a shower while he cleaned up the equipment used.

"I want you to see if you can get a hold of the blood in a person-"

My mind cut out and the dream faded away for a moment only to come back with what was left of Shelly laying across the yard in several locations.

Moments after processing this, my eyes opened to the real world and I took a second to search out the house for the mass of liquid that was, thankfully, in Shelly's room. I was pulling my senses back in when I noticed two others in the living room and remembered that I hadn't let Crescendo and Claves out after the mission.

I felt guilty at forgetting them. When had Shelly let them out? I normally noticed when large amounts of liquids entered my range. Was I just that out of it? Wait, where was the pokeball that I had retrieved?

No matter. Shelly would have taken care of it along with those two. A glance at the clock told me that I would be getting up in the next twenty minutes anyways, having slept through the night for the most part, and wasn't going to be falling back asleep after the last part of that dream.

After taking a shower and getting dressed, I went to the kitchen and quietly began to prepare some waffles. I made sure to use a mix that was safe for us and our Pokemon guests to eat.

My back was turned to the entrance, but I felt it when either Claves or Crescendo walked in. Their liquid contents were close enough that I wasn't able to tell one apart from the other just yet without concentrating, which I didn't feel like doing right then.

"Anything I can do?" the masculine voice in my head answered that question.

"Get some cups ready, please," I responded with a low tone, not keen on waking Claves. She hadn't moved from her spot and was either still snoozing away or being lazy and not getting up. I could relate.

We finished making breakfast and the remaining two members of the household entered the dining room a few minutes after the food was finished. Crescendo had went all out and had plates of cut fruit set out for one to enjoy with their waffles.

Breakfast was eaten in near total silence and I finished quickly in order to get going. It was a Thursday, so school was still going on.

"Thaddeus," Shelly called out to me as my hand was reaching for the knob.

"Yeah?"

"You don't have to go to school today if you don't want to," he offered.

"I've got a paper due today." The excuse was pathetic and I knew it, but I still walked out the door and shut it behind me. My pockets remained empty of pokeballs, which was a decision made purposely.

Once I was at school, I was all but exuding boredom and I was slouched at all times. Headphones adorned my auditory pathways and blocked out the white noise associated with high school. Normal Thaddeus Kaito behavior, for the most part. Noire was out due to having a cold and it was simple to tell Blanc that I was feeling a little off when he picked up on my slightly weird behavior that day.

I was incredibly thankful that Blanc wasn't around me any of the times that someone mentioned the terrorist attack in Canada. No one, as far as I knew, noticed the times that I flinched or subtly frowned when it was brought up. Blanc might have noticed, which could have doomed me. Noire would have, almost certainly, noticed. Even if Blanc really didn't suspect me, I did not want to tempt fate.

They school day ended uneventfully and, once I told Blanc that I would be going home to rest, left. I knew even before opening the door that the house was empty. Shelly had evidently left for his day job and I found a note laying on the dining room table.

[Check your room.]

Instantly, my senses were on high alert. I checked more thoroughly and assured myself that, yes, I was the only living being, beyond plant life, in the house. (At least, the only creature outside of pokeballs. I couldn't sense anything within pokeballs.) Carefully, I made my way to my room. Each step was scouted and I made certain that there was no traps waiting all the way to my room. This caution only heightened when I saw the pokeball laying innocently on my bed.

I spent ten full minutes confirming that there were no traps and actually retrieved two long sticks to pick the pokeball up with. I brought the pokeball to the living room and, only then, touched it with my bare hands. It was an ordinary pokeball, but I knew it wasn't the one I had stolen. That one had some marks on it that the one in my hand was missing.

After a moment more of staring at it, I finally opened it and let out the Pokemon within. The light coalesced into the shape of a small Ninetales.

Now, when I say 'small Ninetales,' I do not mean kind of short. I mean that she was puny. From nose to tail-tips, she was a little less than a yard long.

"Nine?"

I shook my head and asked, "Say again?" I had been caught off guard with the Ninetales' appearance and was not concentrating like I normally did.

That's the thing about my other, less useful, ability. I could not understand Pokemon normally. It was only when I regularly came into contact with Pokemon or was actively concentrating on them that their words began to make sense. Both Crescendo and Claves were easily understood with the barest minimum of thought after being around them for so long. The only other Ninetales I had ever met was Daniel's at the Limping Doughboy and had very little chance to hear her speak. Because of this, it took a moment for the words to make sense.

"-aid you would be able to understand me," she declared her voice confident and vaguely reminding me of how Claves spoke. I hoped that those two weren't too similar. I wasn't sure that poor Crescendo could handle it.

"Don't really have the chance to practice speaking to Ninetales, sorry. I can understand you now."

Her gaze was analytic. We spent a few moments staring at one another. Aside from her small size, she seemed relatively average. No obvious differences to other Ninetales or anything.

"Hold still." All of a sudden, she leapt up to my shoulder. I probably would have tried to dodge if I hadn't received the warning a moment before. My shoulder didn't dip very much when she landed as she weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty or so pounds.

"This will do," she declared right before stretching herself out along the back of my neck. Her head rested on my right shoulder while her tails hung down in front, behind, and along my left shoulder and the left side of my chest.

I waited for her to do something else and spoke when I saw that nothing was forthcoming.

"What are you doing?"

"Resting."

"On my shoulders?"

"Obviously."

"Why?"

"Cause I can."

I was going to argue, but I decided that it wasn't worth it. I just decided to treat it as training. Some people wore weights in their everyday lives in order to build muscle. I guess I could wear a small Ninetales for however long it took her to decide that my shoulder wasn't all that comfortable.

"Hmmmmm." She gave out a content hum and I cursed when I remembered that, due to the multiple and/or thick layers that I had to wear, my shoulders would almost always be comfortably padded.

This may last for awhile.

"Do you have a name?"

"It's Serenade."

"Thaddeus."

And thus started the most frustrating relationship I had with any creature on the planet.

* * *

I was in my room when I felt Shelly approaching the front door and met him at the entrance of the living room when he came in.

"Mind telling me why I have a Ninetales on my shoulders?" I asked him, some irritation seeping into my tone. Serenade had spent the last few hours constantly asking questions, forcing me to show her every niche of the house, and never leaving my shoulders once.

My bladder was strong, but I could only hold out for so long. Her pokeball had somehow gone missing as well! I suspected vulpine involvement, though I had no idea how she had managed it when she hadn't left my shoulders once.

Shelly looked at Serenade, who said nothing, though I could tell she was smirking.

"I would suspect that she is comfortable. It sounds as though you two have grown to know one another pretty well."

Some part of me wondered if he was purposely ignoring my irritation or if early senility was kicking in. The rest of me gave a tired sigh.

"I'm not going to even try," I muttered to myself and ignoring the closed-eyed smile that he was giving me.

"Where's Claves and Crescendo?"

"They helped me out today."

I looked at him for clarification and he reciprocated with, "We were renovating the lounge area."

Day job stuff. Nothing I needed to concern myself with.

"Any idea of when a new job may be coming in?" I asked him while he let out our other two guests from their pokeballs.

His lips thinned slightly before he said, "The rest are acting skittish and aren't promising anything."

My eyebrow raised at the news. So they heard of what happened. I wasn't all that surprised as word spread fast in the underground.

Just what did I get myself involved with?

I didn't comment and instead assisted Crescendo in preparing dinner. Claves had planted herself on the couch and was snoring away in her natural form. (She did not even open her eyes when she came out of her pokeball, just collapsed on the couch with a groan.)

Serenade was, as she had been for awhile, laying on my shoulders.

Crescendo was, reluctantly, letting me help prepare dinner. While Shelly was free to come and go as he pleased, Crescendo had begun announcing the kitchen as his territory. Him and he alone was allowed in there when it came to preparing meals. He rarely allowed anyone else to help him out and only did so when he really needed the help. We were a little behind schedule, so he allowed me to set the table and fix the drinks.

(Claves had a bit of fun now and again turning into the bow-tied Lucario and doing a few things in the kitchen before he arrived. Drove him nuts.)

"Is that Crescendo?" Serenade whispered to me after studying the cooking Pokemon for several minutes.

I raised my eyebrow at her, more like at the snout in the corner of my vision, and nodded silently.

"He actually managed to tame you?" Serenade asked loudly, drawing the the attention of the Lucario in question.

"He-"

"You two know one another," I asked, cutting him off before he started. I needed to ask around and see just how rowdy of a Riolu he really was, though.

"We go waaaay back," Serenade confirmed.

Crescendo sniffed dismissively at her friendly tone, turning his head back to what he had been doing and ignored the shoulder-perched Pokemon. I had a feeling that, if the two had been the same size (and bipedal), Serenade would've tossed an arm over his shoulder and grinning while his face would have been an interesting mix of resignation and stoicism.

"How did you two meet?"

"Serenade, my girl!" Claves appeared by me and halted any explanation that either of them were going to bring forward.

"I see that you've met Serenade," Claves mentioned after giving said Ninetales a hug, which was kind of awkwardly done when she was on my shoulder.

"She likes to cuddle. Used to do it with your dad-"

"Phrasing," Serenade piped up and Claves kept on going, her mouth quirking up and my dread rising at the sight. Nothing good ever came with the appearance of that expression.

"But, now that she is your partner, you'll have to get used to doing it with her-"

"Phrasing!" Serenade barked out, her body shaking from partially suppressed laughter.

I did my best to ignore her and turned to the best source of info that I had at the moment, that was willing to talk, anyways.

"Good to know. Now how do I get her off-"

" **Phrasing, boom!"**

"Of me. OFF OF ME, YOU FOX-EARED ASSHOLE!"

* * *

"You aren't going to g-leave my shoulders, are you?" I was very careful of my wording.

"Nope," she said, paying extra emphasis on the P.

I smiled internally, but kept it off of my face when I said, "I'm about to take a shower."

"It's nothing I haven't seen before," she declared and I leaned away from the grin that told me that she knew exactly what I had expected.

"You are going to get soaking wet."

"I need a good bath. I hope you have some Pokemon-friendly shampoo."

With a tired sigh, I tell her, "Just keep your eyes closed, would you?"

"Sure," she responded, agreeing readily enough.

Per my request, she closed her eyes once I had taken off my shirt and she was relaxing once more on my shoulders. I undressed fully, my peripherals keeping a close eye on Serenade as I stepped in and closed the curtains.

I did my best to ignore her as I cleaned myself off.

It was about five minutes in when she giggled and said, "You really do take after your dad."

A mental image rose unbidden and I screamed in disgust while Serenade laughed at my mental misery.

* * *

"Normal parents ground their children as punishment," I told Shelly, who had changed into pajamas and was reading in the living room. I shivered when Serenade's following giggle brought unwanted mental images back into my mind.

Shelly looked up from the book and said, "I have no idea what you mean."

My head hung when I saw that resistance was futile and I would not be getting anywhere.

"In other news, Pearl is coming to visit."

I perked up at that and said, "When is she getting here?"

"I'd say in the next five minutes."

There was a pause in which my breath stopped and I considered anything that I may have left out that would give away my night job. I ran up the stairs and checked over my room, letting out a sigh when I saw that, aside from some unfinished homework assignments, nothing was around that would raise her suspicions or ire. Shelly had taken care of my suit and mask, so it was well stowed away somewhere.

I cleaned up my already pretty neat room as much as possible in the two minutes that remained before I felt a new presence appear in my range. A quick check told me that it was around the right amount for her and I opened the door right as she was making her way from the vehicle she had, probably, rented.

"Hey, Mom," I greeted her with a hug and only remembered Serenade being on my shoulders after a few moments.

"Thaddeus," she said, her tone raising warning signs.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Why are you wearing that Ninetales?"

I realized that I made a major error. Mom was really big on Pokemon rights and treating them as family and equals. Something I was totally behind, except in that exact situation. People treating their Pokemon like accessories, which is what I was appearing to do, annoyed her to an extreme degree. I had seen her throw some very scary looks at people who did that sort of thing and I did not want to be on the receiving end of them.

I raised my hands in defense and said, "You've got it all wrong! I would love to get this literal weight removed from my shoulders but she won't leave."

Her expression changed from righteous anger and I rejoiced when I saw that I was going to have an ally in my fight for shoulder liberation.

"Well you don't ask a lady to get up when she is comfortable," she told me and scratched Serenade behind the ears before moving past my frozen form.

I stood there for a little longer before Serenade whispered in my ear, "These shoulders are miiiiiiine."

...

"Are you crying?"

"I weep for the servitude my shoulders have been sold into."

* * *

Another two weeks, another chapter. Woot!

So college has been going steadily. What does that mean for you all? Well that means that chapter will continue to be consistent until my schedule says otherwise.

And now I must go study for a Calculus A test...why must Engineering involve so much bloody math? Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed. If you did, or didn't, please leave a review and let me know what you think. The plan is the same and the next chapter should come out on the 12th of October.


	5. Victory

Phantom Thief chap 5

So this is a bit of a short chapter due to my hectic schedule recently. Let it be known that procrastination is an evil thing. Do I know this? Yes. Am I disappointed in myself? Absolutely. Will I do it again? Almost certainly.

Especially with Overwatch having their Halloween special. This may be the very first event that I actually spend money on loot boxes for. I want that Junkrat Skin!

Disclaimer: The plot: mine. The characters: mine and Insomniac's. The world and the inhabitants (Pokemon): do not belong to me. Get it?

* * *

Chapter 5

 **Victory**

Any signs of my tears were gone by the time I walked back inside and joined them in the living room. Mom had taken a seat and I was thankful to note that both Crescendo and Claves had vanished. Either they had vacated the property or were in pokeballs. I had no idea what Shelly had told her regarding Serenade, but explaining Claves and Crescendo would have been a bit more difficult.

"I would have prepared us all a nice supper if I had known you were coming a bit sooner, Pearl," Shelly said letting me know that he had been given very little forewarning as well.

"Sorry about that. I've been swamped with paperwork recently and I only remembered after touching down this afternoon."

Shelly waved away the apology, then said, "It's no problem. How long are you visiting?"

"I'm actually moving back to this side of the pond."

The surprise on Shelly's face told me this was news to him as well. My own heart skipped a beat in panic.

"Though not around here, unfortunately. The only spot they had available to me was up north, so I am heading up there early tomorrow morning." And there went my heart calming down a bit.

Her job was sort of that of a mobile secretary. At least, it involved a lot of paperwork, traveling, and time behind a computer. Because she worked for the WPO, she really wasn't allowed to tell either of us too many details about what she did most of the time.

"Bummer," I said, mentally thanking our luck. I had no idea how Shelly had gotten away with hiding his night job when they were together, but knew that there was zero chance of the both of us doing so if she was so close and more easily able to keep tabs on me.

"Yes, it is. No idea when a position will open up that's a little closer, but I will keep my eye out for one."

I had a feeling that Shelly would be pulling a lot of strings soon to prevent any spots from appearing anytime soon. With how many people he knew, something told me that he had more than a couple fingers in the WPO who could do the job for him.

Serenade let out a wide-mouthed yawn and they took notice of the time.

"If you do not already have a room booked, you can stay here tonight," Shelly offered her.

She smiled sheepishly and said, "That was another thing I forgot to do among the deluge of paperwork. Thanks."

Shelly sent me to check up on the guest bedroom and I made sure that it was ready for her.

"I noticed that you called her 'Mom.'"

"Yeah?"

"Why not Pearl, like you do with Shelly?"

I shrugged and answered with, "I think it's because I work with him. We have a slightly more professional relationship, I guess. Mom is, well, Mom. Kind of outside of the loop."

The sound of steps coming from the hallway silenced my words and she appeared in the doorway.

"Everything looks ready," I told her and made to exit the room, only to be snagged before I could get away.

I was drawn into a hug and she asked, "How are your abilities going? You are keeping warm, right?"

"They are under control. I practice with them now and again and yes, I'm staying warm enough."

"Good. Have you been thinking about what you plan to do after high school?"

"I'm thinking about possibly going on a journey. Getting some life experiences before settling down and going to college or getting some sort of job."

She let out a displeased hum at the indecision that I was showing. I had a feeling that her reaction to the truth would be much more severe.

"I've still got awhile more until I have to decide. I have the time to decide."

"Don't procrastinate," she put a warning finger in my face and smiled when Serenade chuckled.

Little shoulder thief got herself a scratch behind the ear for that.

* * *

Mom was gone early the next morning and I was getting a shower when Serenade spoke up.

"Where'd you get this?"

I had made peace with the fact that she wasn't going to leave, nor keep her eyes shut, so I did not react abnormally.

"Get what?"

She tapped her paw on the thin scar on my arm that had apparently decided to stick around.

"Knife wound. Wasn't serious and got healed up pretty soon after."

I think it was the clipped answer that tipped her off.

"Sounds like you don't want to talk about it very much. What happened?"

"I told you: knife-"

"Yeah yeah, I get that, but what _happened_?"

I froze, not literally, when the memory surfaced at her words.

"Leave it, would you?"

She listened, for once, and did not bring it back up during the shower.

School on Tuesday was interesting, for lack of a better word. I kept track of the amount of strange looks that I saw. Two-hundred and fifteen.

"She won't leave me alone," was my second favorite explanation to people's questions. The first was, "My father sold my shoulders into servitude."

At least it made a few people chuckle, the ones that asked, anyways.

* * *

"These mortals shall learn to fear me."

"You are tiny and I'm pretty sure you can't even curse people with your tails," I retorted to her ridiculous declaration.

Next thing I knew, her tails had enveloped my head and I stopped walking in the middle of the hallway, knowing that I would just bump into people if I tried to make my way to class.

A sigh made its way out and, before I could attempt to speak, a wave of energy rushed through my head and I knew that I had done messed up.

The tails removed themselves and I felt my eye twitching to an extreme degree.

I put my hand on my eye to try to stop it, but found that it continued to twitch despite my attempts to stop it.

"Now that is just petty," I complained, ignoring the general populace that continued to stare.

Her mouth came close to my ear and she said, "Feel my wrath."

I should've just stayed quiet, I really should have.

"Your tiny tiny wrath."

The tails wrapped around me once more and another wave of energy ran through me.

"Why the other eye!?"

* * *

It took a full two days for both eyes to stop twitching and I had used every trick I could find to try and stop them. I never knew that the muscles around the eyes could ache due to overworking.

More than once, I had considered tossing her right off of my shoulders and just running. Sure, I would probably have had to literally freeze her paws to the ground to outrun her, but it was an idea.

The main reason that I didn't was because I was more than aware that her tails were always extremely close to exposed skin. I wasn't about to annoy her too much and get another curse placed on me, however petty it may be.

My eyes were painfully heavy when I went to bed on the third night, aching in a way that I had never experienced.

"I suppose that you have school tomorrow?"

I didn't bother opening my eyes, knowing that the effort was not worth it, as I said, "It's Friday, so yeah."

"But it's so boring! The only interesting thing about that place is your girlfriend."

"Not dating," I said, my tone tired and heavy with the encroachment of sleep.

Noire had taken a liking to Serenade and had actually squealed when she allowed Noire to touch her many tails. I discovered then that Serenade, while still really careful to keep them prim and proper, was not so adverse to allowing others to touch her tails as other Ninetales were.

"It's only a matter of time."

"Whatever." I really did not have the mental capacity to argue with her right then and went eagerly into the void.

* * *

Remember when I said that Serenade was okay with others touching her tails? Yeah, that limit was reached rather quickly when a single person touched a single tail for a tiny moment without her permission.

The guy had to go to the nurses office when he suddenly collapsed and started rocking back and forth, whispering faintly about how he was sorry. The guy did not stop shivering while he was taken away.

"I think you've made them fear you," I said when I noticed the three meter gap that appeared wherever I happened to walk.

"An example had to be made."

"What exactly did you do to him?"

"What I had to."

I sighed and dropped it, thankful that I was not going to get in trouble for her actions. Several people had seen the guy blatantly reach out and touch her tails-an action known to be almost suicidal by most-so he was probably going to be the only one getting any sort of reprimand, if anything at all.

After school, where people were giving us a wide berth, we made our way to the Limping Doughboy, eager to relax.

Leon gave no sort of reaction to me when we came in, but I did notice his eyes narrow just slightly when Sigma raced over to our table.

"Come oooooooon!" Sigma said, pulling on my sleeve excitedly, more giddy than I had seen him in awhile.

"What-"

"New friend! Come on!"

Noire stayed at our table to make our orders, but Blanc followed behind as I was dragged along. I bet that he was very curious, considering the oddity of the last new friend that Sigma had shown us.

The door had hardly began to close before my line of sight was filled with a cream coloring and I was only able to recoil enough from the suddenness of it enough to take in the painfully blue eyes and an orange V on the top.

Small hands held the sides of my head and the blue eyes stared unblinkingly into my own.

I held out for a full minute before my eyes begging for moisture forced me to blink and the small Pokemon let out a cheer, releasing my head in the process.

"Victini!"

"Well that answers my question," Blanc said, wide-eyed at the sight of the Legendary Pokemon of victory. Said Pokemon had situated itself on a table and was munching away on little cakes that I recognized as a macaroons.

"Sigma," I said carefully. "Where did you find Victini?"

"They just showed up a few days ago and they are great! I don't think I've ever played with another Pokemon that has so much energy before."

"That is probably because Victini is said to have unlimited energy," Daniel said, entering the room from a door that led even further into the building.

"Thaddeus, could you come give me a hand?"

"Need my help?" Blanc offered but Daniel waved his hand.

"It's not hard, but thanks."

Blanc was quickly distracted by Victini and I followed him into the back room with no small amount of dread.

"Victini was the Pokemon in the pokeball." It wasn't a question, but I certainly hoped that I was wrong.

"Correct." Dang it!

"When Leon told me that one of the pokeballs that you possessed held almost no trace of your aura, I had a feeling that it was what you had been sent to take. I don't care much for those who deal in Pokemon-"

"And neither do I," I interjected. "I was told that the one who possessed the pokeball dealt in black market methods of acquiring Pokemon. That's the only reason I took the job."

"That is also the reason I let you go. There were no outcries via the official channels about a stolen Legendary, so I suspected that it was something like that."

"Mind filling me in on what you are going on about?" Serenade piped in.

"I'll explain later. Serenade, Daniel. Daniel, largest annoyance that I have ever experienced." Earned a tail smacking for that, but it was worth it.

Daniel did not comment, instead continuing.

"I released them originally to see what they were, but Sigma noticed and took to Victini like glue. I tried having a trusted associate bring them to an area known to house their species, but Victini was back in just a few hours. Around half the world in so little time and I think that they aren't leaving anytime soon."

I rubbed my head and quietly cursed. The situation was certainly not looking good.

"I have told Sigma that he should only play with Victini where nobody else can see them, but I have no idea how long it will take before the wrong sort takes notice."

I was prevented from speaking when Leon's voice showed up in my head.

"Terry is headed your way. I tried to slow him down."

The door slammed open and only Daniel's hand on my shoulder kept me from running forward and dragging Blanc and Sigma out of the line of fire.

"Uncle Terry!"

With that, I found myself very grateful that Daniel had stopped me. It would have been very difficult to explain my actions if he was not only a friend, but family.

"There's my favorite little squirt! Thought I would drop by. Take a break from the case and visit."

While his clothing choices of a loud Hawaiian shirt and slacks made my mind want to relax, his appearance and those last words triggered several flags in my head.

The markings on his face reminded me of those on Mightyena and went well with the claws and fur. Slight movement revealed that he had a tail.

I saw Serenade judge his tail and its ragged state, smoothing out a few spots on her own tails as she did so.

Daniel coughed to get the man's attention, then said, "Terry, these two are Thaddeus and Blanc." He tilted his cane in our respective directions as he said the names.

"Oh, didn't think you were hiring. Starting to get hard to help out," Terry teased.

"Not all of us have Pokemon DNA keeping them nice and spry when we get older, Terry."

Well that answered a few questions I had about the guy. I had never met anyone who had been experimented on by that old terrorist organization. It had been taken down when I was pretty young and I hardly remembered it beyond what was in history class or in some movies. The amount of people who had survived the testing numbered in the double digits so it was unlikely that I had ever met anyone. I probably wouldn't even realize it if someone had been experimented on, seeing as most hid the evidence when they could. Now those like Terry, with the obvious indicators, were not so lucky.

"You said that you were taking a break from a case?" Blanc noted, eying the man with some interest.

"Yeah, I'm in charge of the group who is trying to track down the Shellfish Thief."

Polite interest took the place of the curse that I wanted to mutter. I saw out of my peripherals that Daniel made no reaction to the news, either already knowing about it or just that good. I would put money that it was the latter.

And then Blanc spoke up and I wondered if the fates were conspiring against me.

"I would like to apply for a position as an intern or an apprenticeship under your team. Finding everything I can about the Shellfish Thief is a bit of a hobby of mine and I plan on becoming a detective when I get a bit older."

" _Becoming_?" I said incredulously.

"Well, that's more of a thing I do as a favor."

"People literally have come to your door asking for your help," I deadpanned. It had only happened twice, but I couldn't help but note it.

"Plus the times that you've helped out in those investigations."

"Those letters were anonymous!"

"I saw you drop them off at the station. Basically everyone knows that you were the one to tip them off."

Throughout our discussion, I saw that Terry was looking at Blanc with a calculating gleam in his eye.

"If you are as good as he is making you seem, lets put it up to a little test."

The familiar gleam, the same kind that resided in Terry's eyes, appeared in Blanc's eyes. I looked at the two as they faced one another and wondered what I was about to witness.

"Tell me three things about myself that you can't possibly know by just looking me up on the internet. And I know what's on there. I've checked."

Terry grinned as Blanc fired right off.

"Beginning with the obvious, you were experimented on by Team Styx and Mightyena DNA was implanted in you."

"Anyone with eyes and some basic knowledge of history and Pokemon can tell me that."

"And that's why I said it was obvious. Next is your reasoning for visiting. The case is something of relatively high importance and most would not simply take a break when the Shellfish Thief hasn't been seen in this amount of time. Because you did not immediately ask for privacy or seem rushed, this is a personal visit and not one taken to talk about the case with a friend or associate. I'm thinking that Mister Daniel is an old partner, one you've known for quite a long time."

"Good reasoning, if a bit too based on conjecture. Keep going."

"While it may be due to the Pokemon DNA, your hands indicate that you have an affinity with computers and tend to write quickly. They are flexible and you spread them a little wider than most when you make certain gestures. This suggests that you are used to reaching your fingers out and hitting keys that are farther away."

"Now that's better. More reasoning behind it. Still need a bit more to convince me, though."

"You enjoy drinking others under the table while your Pokemon DNA reduces the impact of the alcohol, as evidenced by the very slight smell of an alcoholic drink on your shirt. As for your favorite thing to eat: chocolate. Light chocolate, if the stain on the left side of your shirt is correct. You also have swallowed seven times in the last few minutes that you have been in here. That denotes higher rates of salivation caused by the scent of chocolate and-"

"Alright, kid. I get it," Terry said, waving his hand to halt Blanc and looking at me.

"Now we have an old soldier, a kid who attracts Pokemon to him like nothing else, someone who is part Pokemon himself, and a tiny Ninetales. What exactly makes you special?"

I was surprised at the sudden change in attention, but was able to respond after a slight pause.

"I can understand Pokemon if I concentrate," I said, internally snickering at how that was probably one of the least interesting thing about me.

"Noire owes me ten bucks," Blanc muttered. I wasn't surprised that he had noticed and didn't mind giving away that particular secret about myself.

"You're hired. Meet me here at 5:30 tomorrow morn-"

"We do not open until seven," Daniel cut in.

"Meet me _outside_ this place at 5:30 tomorrow morning," Terry said, correcting his words.

Terry nodded, seemingly satisfied, then turned back towards me. I felt like leaning away from his gaze, but simply rose my eyebrow at his look.

"Why is there a Victini on your head?"

"I assume because they find it comfortable," I drawled, having not bothered with the extra weight while Blanc had been doing his thing.

I cursed Serenade for instilling such learned helplessness in me while the Victini messed around with my hair.

Terry took a moment before responding.

"Sigma?"

"Sigma."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I finally grabbed the Victini gently and handed them over to Sigma, saying, "Nothing much. Here you go. Have those siblings been around anytime recently?"

This prompted an explanation from Terry, who was informed, then Sigma answered my question with, "No, they haven't visited yet. I'm looking forward to it though!"

* * *

"So, in short, the international community believes me to be a terrorist, one of my best friends is now on the very team dedicated to hunting me down, and I met and promptly pissed off a Legendary by insinuating that their sibling was attractive."

Shelly calmly, so very calmly, rubbed his forehead and let out a word that, while not in English, I was pretty sure was some sort of curse. His tone gave it away.

* * *

Hope the little teaser for the next chapter at the end keeps your attention for the next two weeks. If all goes according to plan, I will be sending out a chapter on October 26. It should be longer than this one because this one was sort of a transition chapter.

Leave a review, would ya! They feed my starving muse.


	6. Framed and Scammed

Phantom Thief chap 6

I bet you all just _loved_ that teaser in the last chapter. With the few reactions that I saw, I'm somewhat tempted to do it again. :3

Now I really do need to study for a Calculus A test, so I will make this short and put it out there. Please leave me a review to let me know how you enjoyed it.

Disclaimer: Tiny Ninetales: mine. Thaddeus Kaito: mine. The weird siblings: not mine. :)

 _Previously:_

"So, in short, the international community believes me to be a terrorist, one of my best friends is now on the very team dedicated to hunting me down, and I met and promptly pissed off a Legendary by insinuating that their sibling was attractive."

Shelly calmly, so very calmly, rubbed his forehead and let out a word that, while not in English, I was pretty sure was some sort of curse. His tone gave it away.

* * *

Chapter 6

 **Framed and Scammed**

"You owe me ten bucks," Blanc told Noire the moment we went back to our table.

"Seriously?"

"He finally 'fessed up in the back," Blanc declared proudly, like he had finally discovered the Shellfish Thief rather than my ability to understand Pokemon.

Noire pinned me with a stare, then calmly said, "Then you hear the voices as well."

There was a pause when Blanc and myself glanced at each other. The pause was shattered when Noire began to laugh and gripped her sides. This let me know, with no little amounts of relief, that she was only kidding.

"Anyways," Noire said once she had gotten a reign on her giggles. We were munching on our snacks that had arrived in our absence and I was glad to have swallowed my hot chocolate prior to her next inquiry.

"When is your next heist? Can I come with you on it?"

"You are still going on about that?" Blanc asked, forgoing his next bite into a pink macaroon.

"My evidence is irrefutable!"

"Your evidence holds no water!"

"It holds ice!"

"That retort actually makes a bit of sense but I have to disagree and insist that it is still farfetched!"

"I don't know," I said with a grin. "It is true that we have never seen myself and the Shellfish Thief in the same room at the same time."

"See! He's admitting to it!"

"Don't encourage her!"

I chuckled into my cup before taking a long drag of the savory goodness. With Noire providing such reasons, I might not get discovered by one of my friends just yet. That reminds me.

"Hey Noire, I'm thinking of getting myself a few cookies to go. You want some?"

"What about me?" Blanc complained, eyeing the cooked dough through the glass with undisguised desire.

"I'm not about to buy cookies for someone hunting me down," I said, holding my hand to my chest with theatrical insult adorning my face. It was thrilling, in a way, with how I was treading the line. Noire accepted, of course, and I moved to the counter where Leon was standing and my eyes were drawn to the television sitting above and to the side of said counter.

I noticed that Leon also took interest in the T.V. located in his field of vision, and for good reason. Most people would sit up and take notice whenever the large, flashing words "Emergency News" appears on-screen. The shop steadily went quiet as more people took notice.

It took me a few seconds to process the words on the screen and plenty of skill to not react in any way that would be construed as abnormal when my brain caught up.

"Evidence at the devastating scene gives evidence that the Shellfish Thief is the one responsible. Pearls of ice as well as other notable items related to the Shellfish Thief have been uncovered at the site, leaving the international community no choice but to label the Shellfish Thief as a terrorist. More information about the death toll and the ongoing investigation will come as we receive them."

One of my life goals happened to be becoming a world-renown criminal. _This_ did not count as I knew it wasn't me who did such a thing. There was also a difference in being a terrorist and a criminal. _Big difference._ Serenade squeezed me gently, just enough to let me know that she was offering support. Or maybe a reminder as to what I was supposed to be doing.

"You are incredibly lucky that I can sense your emotions-that I even bothered to check before striking you down," Leon told me in the privacy of my head, letting me know that he understood my position. His paw, which had been extended, adjusted something nearby before retracting. It felt like I had just dodged a bullet there.

"I'm a bit surprised that they would do that. They don't seem like the terrorist type," my mouth said while my eyes conveyed the real message, if without actual words.

 _I did not do that. Four chocolate chip cookies, please._

Now that last part was said out loud, but I was pretty sure that he had gotten the unspoken message.

"I'm surprised. I thought they were all about being stealthy and all," I said to my friends as I sat down back at the table.

"It's not the Shellfish Thief," Blanc declared, earning a surprised look from myself.

"I've been looking at the info available to the public and none of it correlates to his style. Killing others. Causing an extreme amount of structural damage. As well as the usage of multiple accomplices. It is thought of that he works in small groups or solo. No, this wasn't the Shellfish Thief." With some anger sparking in his eyes, Blanc stood and left the restaurant. I felt a bit of warmth at the fact that Blanc, at the very least, thought that I hadn't done that.

"I'm going to make sure he's alright," Noire told me as she got up, grabbing the cookies I had offered her, and moving quickly to catch back up with her brother.

A sigh made its way out from my lips.

"Well that sucks," Serenade said in my ear, voice low enough to not be easily heard over the somewhat excited chatter involving the recent news. A grunt was her only reply, though she did accept the chunk of cookie that I offered her.

"At least your friend appears to plan to do something about it," Crescendo's voice appeared in my head, making me flinch at the suddenness of it. I had forgotten that I had grabbed his pokeball that morning, making a habit of having at least one of our guests around me at all times. Even if it was just in their pokeball. Serenade didn't count since I had no idea what her combat ability was like.

"I really do need to teach you how to respond in your head, at the very least. You never know when you might meet someone who can only communicate via telepathy."

I grunted, pretty sure that he was able to pick that up. From what they told me, 'they' being my team, being in a pokeball was an odd experience. They could see a bit of what was outside of the pokeball when they concentrated and could hear louder noises. For Crescendo, though, he was able to sense things much farther than Claves and Serenade because of his usage of aura.

I was about to finish off my hot chocolate, already having taken care of the cookies, when a familiar pair of siblings appeared. I saw the blue haired guy stare at Leon as they moved towards the door to the back and Leon simply nodded back, not moving to stop them.

"What is up with those two?" I muttered, mostly to myself.

"Apart from them not being human, what do you mean? They seem pretty normal, hair color aside."

I stiffened, then said, "Hold up. Go back to that 'not being human' bit."

"You can't tell? I really do need to give you some training if you can't sense the difference between regular people and different auras."

"Well I'm sorry that I do not come biologically equipped for such things," I muttered before standing and throwing away my empty cup and napkins.

Leon focused on me as I approached and I told him, "I'm going to talk to Daniel."

I did plan to do that, yes. But my main purpose to going back there was something else entirely.

Leon let me go with no comment and I entered the back room where I found the blue-haired guy berating Victini.

Silently.

The red-haired girl noticed my arrival and waved cheerily at me, to which I responded with a wave of my own. The blue-haired guy took notice of my presence and stared at me with an eyebrow raised.

"Sorry, just passing through." I moved over to Daniel's office and let myself in after a quick knock.

"Most people wait for an answer before coming in," he told me in a flat tone while staring at me from behind his desk.

"Most people don't learn that they are considered international terrorists from the news either," I said, voice snapping at him, my voice kept low to prevent those outside it from hearing it too easily.

He blinked, then gestured to a chair sitting off to the side. I gladly took it.

"Essentially, someone attacked some sort of embassy and left a ton of ice pearls laying around while mostly erasing the video evidence that would have indicated that it wasn't me. This is a tad cliche, but I was framed."

Serenade giggled at the last part.

"What do you expect me to do about it?" Daniel asked.

"Nothing. Exactly nothing. I'm telling you this so you don't decide to report me when it really wasn't me who did it. The truth will be getting around eventually, but I needed to be sure that you were aware of it first."

He nodded, making me relax a bit. It was a good thing I had made sure that Terry had left before I had come barging in.

I chuckled at the thought, eliciting a look from the old man.

"It just occurred to me how the both of us have old friends who are both trying to find the Shellfish Thief and the two of us know exactly who he is. The fact that they were standing in the same exact room as him and had no idea is just amusing to me."

Daniel banished me from his office only for my face to be smacked by a macaroon which I barely caught before it fell.

The red-haired girl winced, her hand extended from a throwing motion. The nearby Victini told me that I had not been the intended target.

"Thanks," I told her with a grin and taking a bite from the small treat. I didn't mind too much and treated it like a joke. I was just glad that the icing got on my face and not Serenade's tails. That wouldn't have ended well.

Blue-hair didn't care for that too much and narrowed his eyes at me, which I chose to ignore to instead bid the other three goodbye. I needed to get home and discuss the news with Shelly as soon as I could. I didn't want to risk calling him with how high of an alert everyone was. Too high of a chance of someone possibly listening in.

I was a little ways down the street when I heard running footsteps coming from behind me. My muscles tensed as I looked behind me, relaxing when I saw it was the blue-haired sibling. He was holding a clipboard and he began to write on it when he saw that I had stopped. I stepped closer to the wall of the building we were next to so we weren't blocking the busy sidewalk.

"Need something?" I asked, tone neutral. It was a tad awkward having to wait for him to finish what he was drawing because there was no way he was writing with all the motions he made.

After a minute of slightly uncomfortable waiting, he turned the paper in my direction, showing me the quite detailed drawing of his sister, minus any color because of the use of a pencil in its creation.

"Your sister? What about her?"

He pointed at her, pointed at me, then shook his head.

I blinked, processing what I thought he was telling me.

"Are you saying we can't be friends?"

His head nodded, a smile appearing at how quickly I picked up what he meant. I was a bit surprised that I had guessed it right on my first go, and mentally grinned when I saw an opportunity to mess with him.

"Tough because we are gonna be friends and you can't stop us."

And there went his smile. He started to write again and I couldn't help but add, "We are both consenting adults."

He karate-chopped the top of my head with his hand and held a warning finger in front of my face, causing me to laugh at his actions even as I rubbed the point of impact.

"Kidding! I'm just kidding. I never get to screw around with Blanc and his sister like that so I'm having some fun where I can."

He blinked, then wrote down some words.

[Are you a sister chaser?]

"Wha-That is _not_ what I meant!"

A suspicious look told me that I was not believed. The pencil met paper once more and I wished that I was less of a gentleman and allowed myself to run.

[I've seen the looks you give her.]

"What looks!? I've been giving her the same amicable look that I give everyone."

He held a finger up in front of my face, then turned around and walked back. I willed my mouth to shut when nothing useful came forth.

"What just happened?" I asked Serenade, wondering what had just happened and if I had won or lost that verbal/non-verbal battle.

"I can ship it."

"I am no longer taking advice at this time."

* * *

"Crap," I muttered as I came close to my home.

"Hmm?"

"Shelly isn't home," I told Serenade. I hadn't expected him to be home, but had hoped nonetheless. I hadn't called him and he hadn't contacted me, so I wasn't sure if he had heard the news or not and it was bothering me.

I entered the house and cursed when I found the note on the table.

[Job came up. Dinner is in the fridge. Be back at some point over the weekend.]

"That's bloody great," I told Serenade and Crescendo when I let the latter out.

"What's the rush? You can always clear your name when Mr. Kaito gets back."

"But I can't wait," I snarled before closing my eyes and getting a hold of myself. No need to lash out at Crescendo when he was just making a suggestion. The panic that had been brutally shoved away when I had first heard the news was trying to make a reappearance.

I opened my eyes again when I knew I was calm once more.

"While waiting is an option, it will be harder to clear my name in the public's eyes if the news lingers for too long. Plus there will be much more emphasis on capturing me if I'm more than just a thief. Gentlemanly or otherwise. The government will be pushing even harder for my capture."

Nothing was said for awhile while I stared at the blank wall and brainstormed. Ideas came and went for a bit.

"If I may, I think I have a suggestion," Crescendo said and I nodded immediately. I may have been in charge of our team, but I was not about to throw away the years of experience that the other members of my team had on me. With the exception of Serenade, most of them were quite useful. I hadn't been on a mission with the tiny Ninetales yet, though, so I wasn't sure how she would be when compared with the other two.

I kept silent as he told us his plan. When he was done, I couldn't help but match Serenade's grin.

"I like it. Best of all, Shelly wouldn't mind it either. We leave in three hours. I've got to secure us a ride."

* * *

Some palms needed greasing, but I got us ride in the form of a Ralts.

I had donned a different mask and covered my normal uniform because I was making the deal in my home town. The only reason why Serenade stayed on my shoulders was because it would make it even harder for the guy to stab me in the back if he went to the cops and tried to describe me to them.

The guy renting me the psychic type was pretty twitchy and snatched the cash out of my hands before fleeing, barely spending enough time to throw the pokeball towards me. A note telling me when and where to bring the pokeball was taped to the pokeball and scanned quickly before stowed away in my pocket.

I waited for the guy to get some distance away, confirmed that there was nothing living around in the decrepit area, then let the Ralts out.

He came out on the top of a trash can, his eyes already focused on me.

"I need to go to this location," I pulled out a paper that I had printed out hours earlier. It was a map of New York with a small part along Wall Street circled. An aerial photo of the street was in my other hand. Both were examined by the small psychic type Pokemon.

"Hold out your arm," he told me, his voice strangely melodious. I did not ask how he knew I would understand, only obeyed the order.

* * *

THOMAS' POV

I rubbed a hand over my head, wishing I could rub the encroaching headache away. I was the only one left in the office and, with the clocks informing me of the late hour, I decided that it was time to head home.

My legs let out loud pops when I stood, having been locked in place for the last several hours. With all the recent excitement over that Thief-turned-terrorist, my boss had made me do some overtime to finish up the article that would be released to the public the next day. I was donning my coat when I shivered at a sudden temperature drop.

I turned away from my computer and relaxed a bit when I saw that the office was empty.

"Not bad," a voice appeared from behind me and I twisted around to find the very person I had been writing about lounging in my chair. I hadn't heard him before he spoke.

My pulse shot into overdrive and I tried to turn and run, only to find my feet frozen to the ground. The ice had already reached my ankles without me noticing.

"If the situation was any different, I would commend this article. Does a good job of keeping the reader's attention while getting the details across."

Their mask hid their face while some sort of device distorted their voice enough so that I wasn't even sure of their gender. As they complimented-and wasn't that an odd thought-my work, the ice had traveled up my legs and trapped me quite effectively.

"I'm just a guy who writes the articles," I said, my voice hoarse and body shaking. They had killed dozens in the attack. Was I about to be another one of their victims?

"And I'm a guy who steals stuff. But that's the thing. I _steal_ stuff. I'm even Gentlemanly about it and only take one or two things when my victim isn't some piece of trash. I don't go about killing others. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth." Least I could tell the cops that it is a guy if I managed to survive this.

The mask finally turned away from the screen to stare at me.

"And that leads me to the reason I decided to give the illustrious Wall Street Journal a visit. I was not a part of that particular event and do not intend to take the blame for it."

Their hand reached into his immaculate white coat, making me begin to shake harder until he took out, not a weapon, but a small USB.

"It took me some time to get my hands on this, so you better watch it carefully." The ice that had wrapped up to my arms prevented me from keeping him away when he came closer.

"Here we go," he said, clipping the device to the collar of my shirt, patting the spot once it was secure.

"Now don't forget," they told me, the mask inches away from my face. His eyes were insanely blue and unblinking while he said, "I will be watching and waiting for the truth to come out." With that, he backed off and walked around me. My body slumped, the ice the only thing holding me up.

"Oh, and feel free to call the police if you want," he told me. "Just know that none of the cameras except the ones in here will find any trace of me. Now, don't keep me waiting."

The door closed behind him and, after a short wait, the ice suddenly melted. Newly freed, I first called the police. Secondly, I called my superiors. They needed to be told about what just happened.

Thirdly, I changed my clothes due to the soaking wet nature of the ones that had been covered in ice.

* * *

THADDEUS' POV

While most places had protections against teleportation from the outside, very rarely did they stop teleportation from occurring on the inside and I had the Ralts bring us back to the building I had rented him in. After thanking them, I returned them to their pokeball and carefully made sure that my surrounding were empty.

"Heck yeah!" I cheered, rolling my shoulders and enjoying the freedom.

"I haven't felt this light in forever!"

"Serenade hasn't been a part of the team all that long," Crescendo told me, his tone amused at my reaction.

I pulled out his pokeball and let him out, jumping around and relishing the lightness that I hadn't been able to fully enjoy while on the mission. She had only consented to leaving my shoulders after we had teleported and we were in full mission mode. Somehow, she had slipped her pokeball into my pocket without me noticing, which only left the question: where had she been hiding it?

"And great job thinking of this plan. It went splendidly!" Getting the information of who had tried to frame me had been surprisingly easy and I was glad for it. Seeing as having proof of my innocence of that crime was what the whole plan hinged upon, I was glad that it had been so simple. Sure, it had been expensive, but I would make up for it with another job.

Crescendo stared at me for a bit with an expectant look and I asked, "What's with the staring?"

"I do appreciate being scratched on the head for a job well done, young master."

I blinked, not expecting that response. I shrugged internally before moving forward and aiming a scratch behind his ear. That's where most Pokemon went weak with pleasure at.

"Like that?" I asked when I pulled back.

"It was... unsatisfactory. Better luck next time."

With that, he put himself back in his pokeball and I was left there with the strangest feeling of defeat.

I've never been the touchy-feely type with Pokemon. Why do I feel such defeat?

* * *

We had to waste a few hours before it opened, but I managed to be the first person in the doors of the Limping Doughboy so I could reward Crescendo for his good job. I had changed out of my uniform, stowing it away at a dead-drop in the hours before I headed to the restaurant, and thoroughly enjoyed the lightness my shoulders were experiencing.

"How are you keeping Serenade from claiming her territory once more?"

I decided not to comment on the 'her territory,' but did tell him, "Duct tape may be silver but it's worth the weight in gold." I pulled out the heavily taped pokeball and quickly put it away, practically feeling the emotions of the inhabitant. I felt promised retribution surrounding that object.

I ignored the disappointed look that he gave me, instead enjoying the hot chocolate that was passed over to me along with a bag of treats that I planned to use to placate the tiny nine-tailed demon sealed away in her pokeball.

I closed my eyes and filtered out the faint sounds of the television and other noises of life, enjoying the taste and feeling of victory as much as I could.

I visibly flinched when two large masses of liquid appeared behind the shop, well within my range. They hadn't approached in the conventional sense as I took special attention of possible threats. I had not yet purposely limited my senses because of the early hour and lack of living creatures moving around and pinging my internal radar. The other sources of liquid that I felt were all, to a degree, very familiar with how often I came to the Limping Doughboy. The other members of the restaurant, Daniel, Sigma, and one more that I was confident was Victini.

Crescendo saw my reaction and I saw him turn his attention to sensing via aura.

"Those two are visiting pretty early," Crescendo commented, taking a bite from the pastry and not making any move otherwise.

"Who? Whatever they are, they aren't touching the ground and I can't think of any sort of Pokemon that can be so still and still hover in the air with that sort of liquid content." At least none that I had ever come into contact with.

He looked at me with a waiting look and I decided that I simply did not want to wait. Standing up, I moved over to Leon and asked him, "May I?"

He nodded and I moved into the back, only to find Sigma still wearing his pajamas and enthusiastically greeting the oddest pair of siblings that I knew.

I blinked in confusion, carefully making sure that my senses were saying the same thing. An affirmative answer only raised more questions. One being: why did those two siblings have liquid stored up in places that their bodies were not in and nowhere in places that there should have been?

Victini was the first to notice my entrance and the sight of the Legendary Pokemon connected the dots for me.

"Sigma," I began. "You have the weirdest habit of befriending Legendaries."

The siblings turned to me with widened eyes-strike that, the blue haired 'guy' narrowed his.

My brain worked overtime. Their aversion to my touch, which was always supernaturally chilly. Lack of speech and replacement with nothing obvious. Shapes of the liquid contents. Pokemon that had the ability to disguise them with those shapes. I didn't know if they could teleport, but it was reported that they could move at extreme speeds. That would explain them appearing on my radar so suddenly.

"Legendary dragons?" I questioned, berating myself for not seeing it sooner. For all the training I had been through, it meant nothing if I did not allow myself to sense them like I had a habit of doing outside of missions.

The 'guy' nodded, his face carefully blank. Both Victini and Sigma had caught on to the mood and were both silent, watching carefully.

"Alright," I said, shrugging at the news.

The 'girl' cheered silently while the 'guy' gave an expression that practically screamed, "What?"

"Everyone's gotta stave off boredom somehow. I'm in no position to judge."

Sigma took this as some sort of signal to cheer, Victini following his lead moments later. The 'guy' met my eyes and I heard a new voice in my head.

"I suppose we don't have to introduce ourselves, then? Not when you were able to figure us out."

"Latios and Latias, yeah?" I pointed at the guy and girl respectively and they nodded. Sigma grabbed Latias' hand and pulled her from the room, saying something about a drawing he wanted to show her. Latios stayed, studying me.

"I meant what I said. I really don't care about the two of you hanging out with Sigma. Just as long as neither of you put him in any danger." My posture straightened as I spoke and the bored look that I normally wore faded away.

"Let it be known that you will have more than an old man and his team to deal with if anything happens to him because of the two of you. He's one of the few kids that I actually like. Sort of like a little brother to me. Legendary or not, you will have to deal with me if anything befalls him.

Latios' eyes narrowed at my words.

"Threatening a Legendary dragon Pokemon. I am not sure if you are stupidly fearless or just stupid."

I grinned a bit at that, then said, "Let me clear that up for you: I'm freaking terrified. When given enough motivation, the power of Legendaries can equal that of natural disasters. If you truly wished to do me harm, there'd be nothing I or my team could do to stop you. The thought of even considering a confrontation against that kind of power is nothing short of ludicrous. Despite that, I'm not going down quietly. My power probably comes nowhere near the level that the two of you stand at. So yes, I am scared. I want nothing to do with a conflict involving either of you. But I will not back down if it comes to making a decision."

While I spoke, the air around Latios appeared to darken. Steadily, his presence gained more and more of an ominous nature and I responded in kind. The air was somewhat humid, which I took advantage of by using it to lower the ambient temperature in response to the darkness. Neither of us made any move for a few seconds after I finished.

During this, I met his stare and thought about how blinking would only lead to defeat. Despite the fear and almost certainty of his superiority over me, I refused to let off of the moisture in the air. This standoff lasted for what felt like an eternity, or at least long enough for my eyes to start to feel really dry.

All at once, the darkness receded and his posture relaxed. I let the air retain the previous temperature while he moved his hand forward.

"I can appreciate strength when it is put to good use. Congratulations, Kaito, you have earned some respect from a Legendary."

I looked at the hand and said, "You sure about that?"

"I will endure."

With that, I reached forward and we shook hands. Our grips firm and eyes holding purpose. After a few seconds of this, his arm began to shake.

"You alright?"

"I AM QUITE WELL THANK YOU FOR ASKING!" His teeth gleamed in a wide grin that made me release his hand. I wanted the blinding white to go away.

He rubbed some heat into the appendage and we were silent for a moment.

Our earlier conversation appeared in my head and I lowered my voice when I said, "Hey, now that it's the two of us, please tell me that you were joking about the whole 'sister-chaser' thing. With what I know now, that's painted in a whole new light."

Latios chuckled at my words then turned and made his way towards his sister and Sigma.

"Hey! I am expecting an answer!"

The jerk just chuckled harder.

* * *

Making my way back home from the Limping Doughboy, I found myself grinning when I approached my house. Shelly had returned.

Opening the door, I hardly got out, "I'm home," before he had appeared in front of me with a speed that I had rarely ever seen him produce.

He grabbed my shoulders, looked me over, then let me go.

"Living room, now."

Guess he had heard. I moved as ordered and sat with the whole team, sans Serenade, taking spots in the room.

"I want an accurate summary of what has occurred in the time I have been gone. Begin."

I spent a moment, then started.

"So, in short, the international community believes me to be a terrorist, one of my best friends is now on the very team dedicated to hunting me down, and I met and promptly pissed off a Legendary by insinuating that their sibling was attractive."

Shelly calmly, so very calmly, rubbed his forehead and let out a word that, while not in English, I was pretty sure was some sort of curse. His tone gave it away.

"At least the last thing was just a misunderstanding, sort of. Oh, and I may have found the group trying to frame me and terrified an employee of the Wall Street Journal while providing proof of my innocence."

Now I'm certain that a few of the words were obscenities. I was impressed. Didn't know that he spoke fluent French. At least, I thought it was French. The mumbling made it hard to tell.

After a short while of this, he turned to the Lucario in the room and said, "Crescendo, please tell me that he didn't do something stupid."

"He performed the mission admirably. He had the proper jamming device that made surveillance technology unable to record him and gained transportation using proper precautions."

Shelly's eyes narrowed.

"How did you go about doing that?"

I pulled out the pokeball containing the Ralts and the paper explaining where and when I needed to return him. Shelly held his hand out for the note and I passed it over to him. He spent a moment reading it, then said, "Congratulations, you now have a new member to add to your team."

I blinked in surprise at his words.

"Uh, what about returning them?"

"I would say that you were scammed, but this guy appears to be a fool. Look."

He passed the paper back to me, pointing at the bottom where there most certainly hadn't been any writing before. The words were slightly faded, like they had only just begun to appear.

[Ha! By the time you see this, I'll already have Ralts back and you'll be stuck like the trusting moron that you are. With where you'll be teleported, I doubt you'll even get to see this letter!]

I read it a few times, then pulled out Ralts' pokeball and let them out.

"Scam service?"

He nodded and said, "He got me about a month ago and I have been waiting for a chance to leave that fool. He wanted me to teleport you to the authorities. He did not factor in the possibility of me being tired of him."

Despite their young age, and my slight difficulty in understanding them (I had never met a Ralts before), I was easily able to tell that they spoke in nothing less than perfect formal diction. That was not something I expected when I considered his background. Or what I knew about it, anyways.

"Then I suppose that you will find no complaints in joining my team?" I asked him, gesturing toward Crescendo and Claves.

A few moments were spent studying myself and the surrounding area.

"She is planning on strangling you if you do not let her out soon."

"Oh yeah. Umm."

"Thaddeus," Shelly warned me when he saw me hold the pokeball and hesitate in removing the tape.

"Right, right."

Before letting her out, I rolled my shoulders and hopped a bit. This earned rolled eyes from all around who understood the reasoning behind the actions.

The tape came off and, in the same few seconds, a familiar weight had settled itself on my shoulders and my hand was suspiciously empty.

A bag of treats was shoved in her face and the peace offering kept me from receiving anything bigger than a tail smack. A single tear made its way down my cheek.

"I am feeling merciful. Who's the squirt?"

He saved me the trouble and spoke up.

"Waltz. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Serenade stopped her snacking, then looked at me.

"You could learn a thing or two from him."

"So could you."

Got smacked in the cheek for that cheek.

* * *

Now this chapter is a better length than the last. Please leave a review telling me what you thought of it!

Also, just how many of you guessed the truth about the siblings? Be honest now!

Thanks for reading.


	7. 玄 (Xuán)

Phantom Thief chap 7

Despite not actually giving a date that I would let this out (I forgot to do so) here this is.

Disclaimer: This story is mine. The plot is mine. Pokemon is not mine. Get it?

* * *

Chapter 7

 **玄 (Xuán)**

Leaving the television on for ambient noise was not something the Kaito family did often. Then again, we weren't just leaving it on for the noise alone. Even with an ear listening for any mention of the Shellfish Thief, I only came running into the living room when Claves called for me. Shelly, Crescendo, Claves, and the newest member of our team, Waltz, were all in there.

"New evidence has been uncovered by police agencies regarding the recent terrorist attacks on the embassy. Previous evidence pointed towards the burglar who has garnered much attention lately, the Shellfish Thief." The lone picture of me diving out of the window appeared on the screen, causing me to wince at the sight. I also felt a little annoyed at her referring to me as a burglar. That sounded so much worse than a thief.

"According to several agencies, it has been more-or-less confirmed that it was not the Shellfish Thief who was responsible for the attack, but rather-" Shelly muted the sound and turned to me with a small smile.

"It appears that your actions worked perfectly."

"All thanks to Crescendo here," I patted the Lucario on the shoulder and Shelly acknowledged him with a nod.

The doorbell rang, making most of the room tense for a moment. I extended my senses out and relaxed.

"My friends. What about Waltz? Cover story?"

Shelly spent a moment thinking, then said, "You found his pokeball laying in a ditch and Waltz told you that he didn't want to go back to his old master."

Shelly had not been pleased when he had learned that I had to tell Blanc about my ability to understand Pokemon but decided to just roll with it.

I moved to the door and paused when a new weight made itself known on my head.

I inhaled, held it, exhaled, then kept walking.

"Hey Noire, hey Blanc," I greeted the Blanchimont siblings and moved out of the way in an obvious invitation inside.

Noire glanced at my head before walking in while Blanc stared as he walked past.

"So how's your new job?" Shelly asked Blanc once we had all taken seats in the living room. Crescendo emerged from the kitchen with glasses of tea and Claves followed behind, holding a separate platter with some snacks on it.

A small part of me wondered how in the world he had gotten them prepared so quickly. I wanted to ponder over the mystery some more, but held back to listen to Blanc instead.

"It's going really well! I'm not supposed to talk about the details, but I can say that it has been really interesting." The shine in his eyes showed us all that he was truly enjoying the work, whatever it was that he did specifically. I suppose being around those similar to you does make life more fun when you are as strange as Blanc.

"So were you responsible for the news changing their opinion of the Shellfish Thief?" I asked, then added, "We saw it on the news just a minute ago."

His grin turned into a frown and I detected a pout that made me want to grin.

"I wish. Apparently he went to the Wall Street Journal and terrified an employee while handing over the information that led to his innocence. In that matter, anyways."

I was glad to have made such an impression.

"He was smart about it as well," Blanc said. "He did something that basically made the cameras that caught sight of him only detect white static and we couldn't find any fingerprints on what he left behind."

I made a note to include the jamming device on future missions that were more blatant than a simple robbery. It was useful at taking care of potential evidence, but dangerous to use whenever someone might be looking at the screen. While my white clothes and mask might catch a careful eye, the white haze that the jamming device caused on electronics would instantly be noticed even if someone wasn't watching carefully.

"So are you going to move over to the investigation aimed at the real terrorists?" I inquired.

Noire scoffed, then said, "I think we already know the answer to that. If I didn't know him any better, I would say that he has a crush on the Shellfish Thief. Or should I say-"

"Don't," I interrupted her, my face looking decidedly green. I was glad to see Blanc in the same situation.

Serenade chose that moment to pounce onto the conversation.

"I can ship it."

My eye twitched and I bowed my head, nearly causing Waltz to topple off.

"Sorry," I muttered to him.

"By the way. What's with?" Blanc looked at Waltz then back at me, making it fairly clear what he was asking about.

"Found his pokeball in the ditch the other day. I was going to bring him to the police, but he said that he doesn't want to go back to his old master."

"But why is he-"

"I've given up," I said by way of explanation.

There was a pause before Noire let out an, "Oh!"

She searched her pockets for a moment before tossing something in my lap.

"What's this?" I asked, picking up the flat, circular object with a string running through a small hole in the top of it. Lines ran across its surface, connecting and intertwining in eye-catching patterns.

"Keep it on your person at all times for the next three weeks."

"What does it do?"

"Good luck charm," she answered and I took note of the way she said it.

Why was she lying?

"Why do you think I need luck?"

"For studying on finals week."

I winced at her answer, abruptly remembering that our senior year was coming to a close in around a month's time. I had mostly forgotten with everything that had been going on.

"Right. Thanks," I told her, donning the necklace. The cord felt nice against my skin, even with Serenade pushing it against me.

* * *

We had retreated to my room to play some games after Shelly had told us that he had some paperwork to take care of. I had a feeling that he was going to be looking for a job and checking the underworld for possible retaliation mobilizing against the Shellfish Thief. The group that had tried to frame me wasn't well known, but I knew that Shelly would not want to take chances.

The siblings stayed for a few hours, leaving once the sky began to darken. Waltz was mostly quiet as he sat on the lofty perch that was my scalp.

"I'm going to take a shower," I announced to the two. Waltz hopped right off and left the room. Serenade did nothing, which was exactly what I had expected.

"You could learn a thing or two from him," I said as I stripped, desensitized to her presence long before that point.

"You never did give me the story behind this." A tail stroked my right bicep, following the thin line of the scar that was there, and my lips thinned at the action.

The water had grown hot before she spoke again.

"What happened to get you-"

"A series of stupid choices that led to one of my biggest fuck-ups in life," I snapped at her, letting out a rare expletive. She did not bring it back up that night.

Upon entering my bedroom, I couldn't say that I was surprised to find a sleeping Waltz on the top of my pillow.

I let out a sigh and wondered if all Pokemon were so touchy-feely. I carefully lifted the pillow he was on and moved it over a bit, putting another in its place for myself. I had gotten better about not moving around in my sleep and was glad for it, not wanting to roll over on Waltz during the night.

The next week went by rather quickly with nothing of importance happening. Waltz did not like crowds all that much and opted to either stay home or remain in his pokeball whenever he accompanied me to school or elsewhere. Any other time, though, he was perched somewhere on me. Serenade had taken a liking to the kid, wrapping him up in her tails to keep him stationary whenever he wanted to sit on my shoulder.

I was finishing up my homework, which was more of an optional study guide, when Shelly walked in.

"I found a job-"

"I'll take it," I said quickly, earning a surprised look from everyone else.

"Life has been a bit stale lately. I don't want the guys hunting me to think that I've given up or it'll be boring all around."

Shelly's only reaction to that was an amused look before he got back to business.

"This one is a bit more simple and shouldn't be too exciting. Just something that will let the world know that you are still around."

"When do I leave?"

* * *

It turned out that the answer was as soon as I was able. I had donned my gear and had been teleported to the alleyway across the street from a large warehouse-type building in the same few minutes.

I couldn't help but feel a bit of nostalgia at the sight as it reminded me of my first job. The methods I used to get in there were even similar, though I decided against cutting the power as the warehouse was in a nicer area than my first one had been in. The job was, as Shelly said, simple in theory and execution. I got in there, stole some paperwork, and got out in twenty minutes, tops. Several pearls were laid out in plain sight before I made my exit.

I was on the top of a building that almost brushed by the warehouse, having used its fire escape for my own escape, when the first interesting thing happened on that mission.

It was dark enough that I did not see the small object that flew out of nowhere and hit me until it was too late. There was the sound of something heavy impacting the ground the next second. I tried moving and found myself restrained by tendrils that I knew were unnatural. They held no liquid in them yet seemed to be sentient enough to respond to my struggles against it. They weren't robotic, I could tell that much. Even robots need oil or lubricant to keep parts from seizing up.

The shock of the action had me notice the figure for the first time. But that wasn't right. They had been in my radar. Why hadn't I paid attention to them? And why was it so difficult to look at them as the slowly approached? My eyes didn't seem to want to focus in on the direction that they were in. Heck, even my senses detected them and still didn't make a note of it.

It was causing me some panic when I realized that I couldn't even get a hold of the liquid inside the person. I didn't necessarily want to, but something told me that I wouldn't be able to even if it did come to that and I was starting to freak out.

They stopped about a meter in front of me and, before anything else could happen, a familiar ringtone split the air. At the sound, the compulsion to look away vanished. My eyes locked onto the person who was scrambling to get the phone out of the shoulder bag that went over their left shoulder and sat in the middle of their back as the strap went diagonally across their torso. I saw that the long sleeve shirt and their long pants were covered in lines and symbols that were-

You have got to be kidding me. I watched as Noire, because that is exactly who it was, grabbed the phone and silenced it with a swipe of her gloved finger.

"Real professional," I said, glad that the voice distorter was still attached and functioning. I needed to begin damage control as soon as possible.

Her mask, which was adorned with a single character that looked to be Mandarin, couldn't hide the knowledge that she was scowling behind it. I knew her too well.

(玄 . What did it mean? I made a note to look up what that meant once this was all over.)

"I haven't been in the business for all that long," she admitted, doing a piss poor job of trying to deepen her voice and make it harder to recognize.

"It shows," I told her and she visibly wilted. I felt bad, but made no reaction.

"What do you want," I inquired, the tone of annoyance easily detected through the distorter.

"It's just," she shifted in place, holding something behind her back. She said nothing, seemingly building up the courage.

"Spit it out," I barked.

"CanIhaveyourautograph?" The words came out in a rush and the paper was shoved into my face. I couldn't hold back the flinch and was happy that the mask hid the reaction.

"What?" I was well and truly blindsided.

"It's just that you are kind of my idol and I think you are really cool and my brother would be so jealous and I was so excited to actually catch you and-"

She went on and on until I went limp in my confines and said, "Enough, Noire. Please just stop."

Her fangirling ceased at once, though I could practically feel the grin she wore. Her voice gave it away.

"Finally. I thought you would call me out after the screw up with the phone."

"Just get me out of-whatever these things are."

"Of course~." I saw her pull a strange looking knife out and I froze, wondering if she meant something else entirely.

Thankfully, she answered the question rather quickly when she buried the blade into one of the inky tendrils. Like a vacuum cleaner, the tendrils were sucked into the knife and I dropped down back to the roof. A crack beneath my shoe had me looking down at some sort of shattered crystal. I backed away as she came forth and collected the pieces, depositing the remains in her pack.

"How did you even find me?"

"Bet you would like to know that," Noire said, her tone victorious and very different from my tone in the next breath.

"Noire, _tell me_."

She noticed how serious I was and stopped looking so playful. I didn't like doing that to her, but I needed to know if I was to remain safe. Where had I messed up? Did Shelly follow a bad lead? Those were the kind of questions that needed to be answered lest we fall for someone's trap.

"The talisman I gave you. You never took it off, did you?"

I felt my chest and noticed that there was nothing there. A moment was spent searching my memories and I had no recollection of removing the necklace. I felt out and made extra certain that nobody else was anywhere nearby before moving my shirt so I could get a look at my bare chest. It was still dark on that roof, but I had enough light to see the circle with lines running across it imprinted into my flesh.

"You _branded_ me!?"

"If by branding you mean melding an ancient tracking script to your flesh, then yes."

I took a breath, found my center, exhaled, then resisted the urge to smack my friend upside the head. Who even does stuff like that? Oh yeah, this was Noire I was thinking about.

"Noire."

"Yeah?"

"How did you even get here? You don't have easy access to a Pokemon who can teleport."

I had, more or less, accepted the fact that she could track me. How she had gone about doing so bothered me, but that would be a conversation for another time.

"I have my ways," she said, her voice playful and amused once more.

I wished that I could indulge in rubbing my forehead to alleviate the headache that had appeared but knew that was impossible while on a mission.

"Why are you even doing this? What is with that getup?"

"It's because I want to become a Thief, just like you!"

My eye twitched and I turned away from her, saying in the most droll tone I could muster, "Sorry, but we aren't taking applications at this time. Please try again in the next six months."

I was pulling out a pokeball to let Waltz out when she grabbed my arm and said, "Wait!"

I turned back to her and crossed my arms, waiting.

"I was serious, earlier. I do look up to you and want to be like you." Noire wasn't joking when she said that.

"Why do you look up to me? Yeah, sure, the fame is interesting and all and the job gives me a rush, but that's not all there is to it. I put my life in very real danger on every mission I go on. If the wrong person finds out about my identity then I will have to disappear. I won't ever get to live a normal life."

"But at least you get to put your abilities to use!"

"Yeah, because understanding Pokemon is such a useful skill to my lifestyle," I said sarcastically, praying she would go with it.

"Don't play dumb! You aren't the only one with abilities that they would rather not be made public. You've already seen a little of what I can do."

Noire tapped her pack as she said, "That was just a single talisman. I know hundreds of patterns, thousands of symbols. They can be combined and used in every way conceivable and I am able to do that."

I paused.

That explained a lot about Noire, actually.

"You could always put your abilities to work at helping people? I remember you giving some people talismans against sickness. Whether those actually worked or not, I have a feeling that you can make some that do function as intended."

"And be forced to mass produce what somebody else tells me to make? Not a chance."

"Could teach others how to do it?"

"Tried that. Got someone to draw a symbol that I had made and used before and I couldn't do anything with it. I'm the only one who can make them."

Another sigh was let out.

"Who called you?"

She hesitated in the change of topic, but said, "Blanc. He should be getting back home from work about now."

"Call him back and let him know that we were busy with-"

As I provided Noire with a reasonable sounding excuse, another part of me was formulating an explanation to Shelly when this was over.

"Hold up," I told her when she was about to hit the call button. I called Waltz out, grabbed Noire, then said, "Send us home."

Our surroundings changed and we appeared in the living room.

Now, things could have been worse. Terry or Blanc could have been in the room. My mother could have been around. But when I saw Shelly looking up from his book, I was pretty certain that I had the worst of luck.

A hand forestalled any words and I told Shelly, "So you know how Noire is all about talismans and such?"

I went on despite a lack of answer. "Well it appears that she can do stuff with them. Like, supernatural stuff. The long and short of it is this: she wants to be like us. But before any of that, she needs to tell her brother that she's been hanging out with me before he gets suspicious for not answering his call earlier. Noire, make the call."

She took off her mask and smiled weakly at the grim visage that my father showed. I kept mine on, happy that there was some sort of barrier between myself and him.

She made the call and delivered the excuse perfectly. Once the conversation ended and the phone was put away, Shelly gave a simple command.

"Sit."

If I hadn't been right next to the chair I normally took, I probably would have sat on the ground. That is how serious Shelly was right then. Noire, who had never seen this side of him had a touch of fear in her eyes.

"Thaddeus himself did not know that he was going on the mission he just completed until a few hours ago. The fact that you knew where he was going to be at indicates that you have a method of tracking him. I do not think I need to remind you who your brother is and the kind of threat that poses to my son. _Explain._ "

"The necklace!" Noire yelped. Shelly saw that he was pushing too hard and backed off a bit. The last time I had felt someone emit such a feeling was when Latios and myself were having our stare-off. Shelly didn't give off such an obvious aura, nothing visible, yet it was somehow even more intimidating than Latios' projection of darkness.

"Thaddeus, where is the necklace?"

I gripped the collar of my uniform and pulled it far enough down to show what I had seen before.

"What are you doing?" Shelly asked me, his confusion evident.

"Showing you the tattoo looking thing that isn't supposed to be there that she uses to track me," I told him, my own tone confused at the question. I glanced down and confirmed that, yes, it was still there.

"Uh, about that," Noire interrupted. "Only us two can see it as far as I am aware. Nobody else can tell that it is there."

She spent a moment filling in Shelly as to what it was and what it did.

"What are your limits with your abilities?" Shelly asked, leaving the discussion of the tracker behind for a bit.

"I don't know," Noire answered. I was pretty certain that she was telling the truth.

"As long as I have the right material and I know what I want, then I can usually make it happen." She shrugged at the end of that. I don't think she really has ever gone all out with her abilities.

A small part of me was quietly glad of this, reasonably sure that her powers far exceeded mine when it came down to it. I was limited to liquid. Noire wasn't.

"Why do you want to be a part of what we do?"

Noire put on a determined expression before she said, "I want to actually be able to use my power. I don't know where I got it, or why, but I have it for some reason. No idea if using it to steal things from others is a part of that reason, but I want to do _something_ meaningful with it. And no," she looked at me, "I will not go and be some sort of miracle worker who is told to do whatever someone else wants done."

"It would be more fulfilling," I said, trying once more.

By the way Noire scoffed, I knew I was just wasting my breath.

"Fulfilling for someone else, maybe."

I examined her tone. Really looked at it. She was bitter. She had her powers and wanted to be able to use them however she wanted to use them.

I sat back with a sigh. The thing is, I could understand her reasoning easily. If I was to come clean, before I made a name for myself, obviously, then I knew that I would only become something interesting to scientists or be forced to do something that was probably no fun. It would be even worse for Noire, seeing as she had so much more potential than I did.

There were only two options for people like us when it came to the people in charge: to be used to our full _potential,_ or to be forced into normality. Neither of those options were endearing to either of us.

"Last question," Shelly said, making me sit up in interest.

"What was that on your mask? I did not get a good look at it."

Noire turned the face towards Shelly, showing him what he asked. From the flash of amusement in his eye, I knew that he knew what it meant.

"Well?" I asked, wanting to know myself.

"Now telling you would just be no fun."

I visibly drooped at his words, foreseeing hours of searching so I could pin down what that one character meant. My curiosity wouldn't allow me to just leave it be. At least the serious mood had dissipated with Shelly's grin.

"So I guess we can relax now?"

Noire jumped when Claves spoke up. She turned and only noticed Crescendo and Claves standing behind her for the first time. They had been standing behind her for most of the conversation, ready to respond to whatever order Shelly gave.

"Yes, Claves," Shelly answered. He had spent enough time around Claves that he could usually understand her despite not having my ability.

Claves vaulted the couch and plopped right down next to Noire, forcing her to scoot over a bit and blink in confusion at her nonchalant demeanor. Crescendo retreated to the kitchen and the sound of water flowing told me that he was rinsing some dishes. He trusted Claves enough to keep us protected if it came to it.

"It will take some time to find a job for your level," Shelly told Noire, causing her eyes to widen and joy to almost glow out of her pores.

"In the meantime, you will find excuses to come here so Thaddeus can train you."

"Ah, pardon?" I said, thinking my brain had sent the wrong signals.

"It will be good practice-"

"I'm not qualified-"

"Just show her the ropes-"

"But-"

"No 'But's."

"All of the 'But's!"

" _Phrasing!_ " Serenade all but shouted when she pounced from behind and reclaimed her rightful-

I mentally shook my head as I corrected myself.

-snatched the freedom of my shoulders from me once more.

"What?" Noire asked, looking at the smug Ninetales in confusion.

"Nothing important," I told her and Shelly took that moment to strike.

"Glad to see that you agree," Shelly ignored my sputtering denial as he said, "Now you should probably get home. Do you need one of us to drive you?"

It was actually very dark out and I really shouldn't have been surprised considering how dim it had been when I had left.

"No, I've got transportation covered."

A sly grin formed as she turned her left arm so that her palm faced up. Along the underside of her arm, I saw that the lines that twisted around the rest of her clothes didn't touch the patterns that were lined up along the underside of her arm. With how intricate they were, I wasn't sure how many individual ones that were close together or if it was just one very large pattern.

One hand grabbed the bag she had set aside and the other placed a finger in a certain spot on her arm.

"I'll be in touch." With that declaration, she was gone.

There was no flash of light. Reality did not bend, as far as I could tell, like normal teleportation worked. I did not sense her liquid content move incredibly quickly. She was simply gone.

There was a pause, then Shelly told me, "You know, most people have simple friendships."

I felt mildly offended and said, "It's not my fault one of them is hunting me and the other idolizes me!"

Shelly looked me in the eye and said, "I'm sure."

Before I could defend my honor, Shelly produced a book from nowhere and tossed it to me. I groaned after reading the title.

"Better get searching," Shelly told me, standing and leaving me with the dictionary.

The Mandarin dictionary.

"Gāisǐ de!" I muttered under my breath.

"Language!" Shelly scolds from the kitchen.

My eye twitched and I opened it up with a resigned expression.

* * *

So here's another chapter. Leave a review telling me what you think of this new twist. This is going to be interesting to work with.

Also, please do not discuss anything regarding the recent election in your reviews. I gave up on all of that halfway through the campaign season and didn't bother to vote. But that's enough about politics.

Let me know how you liked the chapter!


	8. Knives and Electric Squirrels

Phantom Thief chap 8

Important Note at the bottom. Please read.

Disclaimer: The Pokemon franchise is not in the possession of a teenager who is still in college. Surprise!

* * *

Chapter 8

 **Knives and Electric Squirrels**

One would expect the hardest thing for a senior in high school with finals approaching to be preparing for their future, those upcoming finals, or something of that nature.

I envied teenagers with such basic worries. They didn't spend their weekends training their friend how to survive as a criminal. (At least, I hoped they didn't.)

Right before I pressed a button on the remote that I held, I said, "Knife from three."

Noire turned, pulling the blade from her sheath and only just intercepted the ball with the flat of her blade before putting it away and leaving her hands near her hips, ready for my next instruction. Her bag was sitting in its normal location in the middle of her back, but she had a new addition to her outfit. A belt with improvised pockets sown into it held talismans she had prepared. It did not have the patterns that the rest of her outfit boasted due to me handing it over to her that afternoon. With the exception of her mask, she was in full mission attire. I decided that we needed to get some muscle memory in place before we added the extra difficulty of the mask and how it blocked some areas of ones vision.

"Let's take a break," I said, pressing the power button on the remote and retiring it to my pocket. Noire slumped in place, breathing heavier than normal but straightening out and putting her hands on her head with her elbows pointing outwards like I had advised her before. Made it easier to get air back in your lungs and recover faster.

"You are doing pretty well for someone who has only just started training. Good reflexes and reaction times. Just need to work on your stamina."

Noire didn't respond, instead gratefully accepting the chair I set out and resting for as long as I would allow her.

"Let's do some theory right now. What do you do if you lose your pack, your weapons, and anything that you brought with you with the exception of your clothes. You have also been seen and a guard is right in front of you, about to pull out a weapon. Go."

"Kick him in the balls," Noire declared tiredly, making me grin a little.

"You mean between the legs. Not all criminals are male." I looked at her pointedly as I said it and she conceded my point with a nod.

I quizzed her on different sorts of situations and eventually stood. The action felt weirdly easy, Serenade having got bored and retreating to the living room with Waltz and Claves, who had both stayed home while Crescendo and Shelly had gone somewhere.

The air was pleasantly warm and dry enough that I found myself unzipping the thin jacket I wore.

"What are you doing!?"

I paused in the movement of removing the jacket to look at her, wondering what was up with the shock in her tone.

"Taking off my jacket. It's warm out here, even to me, and we are going to spar."

Noire blatantly looked away from me and I glanced at my arms. Yeah, they were pretty pale from the lack of sunlight but I felt that the muscle tone made up for it.

"You never have so much skin showing. It feels like you're indecent!"

I blinked at her words and failed to hold back the snort that rose.

"Don't laugh!"

"I'm wearing a tee-shirt. It's not like I'm in a speedo," I said to her and I saw her face first blush, then transition to a grimace, like she had just brought up an unpleasant mental image.

"What's with that face?" I asked, feeling slightly insulted. I felt like I was pretty good looking, overall, anyways.

"You're so pale."

"You would be if you had to wear so much to stay warm," I told her with a deadpan tone as I began to stretch. A glance at the fence affirmed that, whatever Noire had done before we began, it was still active. I had gone outside and looked in, to see it with my own eyes, and was surprised to see that our backyard lacked the girl I had just left behind. If I hadn't been able to sense her, I would have assumed that she had teleported out.

I wasn't sure how exactly they worked, but Noire told me that they would keep anyone from looking in and being able to see us. That was good enough for me as we needed a space to train her and the backyard was our best option. I wished that Shelly had access to those handy little stones when I was training as we used to have to retreat deep into the woods or train in secluded areas when we started doing truly dangerous stuff.

"I think that's enough resting. Let's test out those reflexes in a spar."

"Rules?" Noire asked, lifting herself from her spot with a grimace. This wasn't our first time sparring, but it would be the first time that I would allow her to use more than her arms, legs, and whatever she could come up with on the fly.

Seriously, she tried to weaponize _grass_. Don't ask me how, just run if she ever licks her palm and begins to stick grass to it.

"You can use basically whatever isn't immediately lethal and I will stick to only whatever _I_ can make on the fly. And only melee stuff at that. Swords, knives and the like. This will be a good chance for the both of us to practice."

"Okay, give me a moment." She took off her pack and placed a few different objects on the ground a little ways away from us before returning to her spot a few yards away from me. I watched her to make sure that she didn't _accidentally_ drop something on the ground that she could go for later. I was teaching her to survive as a criminal. Fighting dirty was a part of the lifestyle. Yes, there is such a thing as honor among thieves, but not when it comes to fighting. If you see a chance to kick them in between the legs, then take that opportunity. It could be the move that wins you the fight and, hopefully, the chance to not die.

That is how Shelly taught me and that is how I taught Noire.

"Ready?"

"Ready," Noire confirmed, one hand holding a circular gem that was black and failed to reflect any light that hit it. I knew that that particular talisman produced the same tendrils that she had used to catch me that night on the roof.

Noire wasted no time and sent a single dark tendril towards me. I deflected it with a thin shield of ice that I created, melted once it served its purpose, and turned into a small dagger that grew as I ran towards her. She let the first tendril fade into shadows and produced another one to block the blade of ice, which shattered on impact with the weirdly stone-like tendrils.

She jumped back to avoid a kick I sent at her and pulled out a talisman that I recognized. I barely made my way out of its sphere of influence before the very air around Noire began to ripple, the sight making me slightly nauseous despite not being hit by it. That talisman did something to a person's senses, causing nausea and the inability to process things easily. I had been sitting down when she demonstrated it on me and quite nearly fell out of the chair, my grip on the armrests being the only thing preventing me from doing so. If I had been too close to her when she had used it, I would have been out of the fight immediately.

I was just glad that Noire couldn't move while using it. She said that it barely affected her, but it did enough that she didn't trust herself with walking without tripping. Soon enough, the shimmering waves of visible energy vanished and Noire blinked a few times while putting the talisman back in her belt and pulling out another that I did not recognize.

I had an interesting time with her next talisman, which somehow created invisible barriers. I figured out that she had to be looking at the location where the barrier stood and quickly forced her to put away that one and rely on the one that created tendrils. In a pause of our spar, I used some time to coat my arm with a thick layer of ice in the semblance of a blade while creating a smaller sword in my left hand before charging back at her.

She finally drew her knife and used her tendrils to block my short sword, turning her own blade to block my ice-encased limb.

Right before collision, I saw her expression change and the hand holding the knife jerked back at the last second. I had to rely on my reflexes to stop from landing what would have been a very painful blow on her and was forced to stumble past her. The moment I got my footing back, I forced the ice back into liquid form and shook my arm dry before I asked, "What the heck was that?" I made it pretty clear how I felt about her actions, but waited before tearing into her.

"You weren't cut, were you?" Noire asked, moving closer and looking closely at my arms.

"We are sparring. Injuries are a part of it and cuts are no different," I snapped at her. The mood was broken and I had been enjoying the spar as I had not been in a good fight in a long time.

"Tell me if you were cut!"

I recognized the panic in her tone and eyes and backed off, frowning.

"No, I wasn't. You pulled back. What's the big deal?"

I knew that she wasn't afraid of blood and that she didn't shy away from causing harm when it was necessary. That was one of the first things I checked about her because she would need to get rid of any fears like those if she wanted any chance as a criminal.

"I've never tested this knife on anything except plants and my talismans. I'm not sure what it would do to you if it cut you."

If I hadn't seen what she could make seemingly useless rocks, crystals, and other random objects do, I would not have understood the significance of her worry.

"What happened when you tested it on plants?" I asked, moving to retrieve my jacket as the usage of my abilities had cooled off the surrounding air enough to warrant it.

"I tried testing it in two different ways. I tried cutting a tree, just a quick jab into it before pulling it back out. Nothing happened right then. The next tree I tested it on, I stabbed this into it and left it there. I spent a few hours doing some other things, but I eventually noticed the tree with the knife in it beginning to wilt."

Noire paused to take a breath, then told me, "I left the knife in there for almost five hours, give or take a few minutes, and the tree looked like it was rotting by the end of it."

"What about the one with the cut? That's a little more relevant to our situation," I stated.

"The one with the cut didn't react for a few weeks. I checked on it almost a month later and it looked like the one I had left the knife in after those original five hours. The one that was stabbed had fallen and was already rotten enough for me to poke with a stick and make the wood bend."

"Ah. That is bad," I said after processing it for a moment.

"Did you ever accidentally cut yourself?"

"No. Ever since that test, I've only really used this knife for destroying talismans made of very hard material or forcing them to stop when they start malfunctioning badly. It's my only safeguard when talismans act up or I mess up."

I stopped my next question and replaced it with another when I realized something.

"Noire, what happens when a talisman acts up?"

I had never heard her say anything about one acting up. Sure, she said that they do mess up sometimes due to her doing something wrong, but never used the phrase 'acting up' when referring to them.

Noire shifted on her feet a moment before answering.

"Normally, they just don't act like they are supposed to. The dark appendages talisman might thrash around or twitch weirdly. Sometimes they fail spectacularly and just go berserk. I had to create the knife after a talisman that was supposed to help plants grow decided to basically possess the tree and flail around at anything that came close. Since the talisman was a small piece of iron embedded in the tree, I couldn't break it easily and had to make the knife, attach it to a long stick, and used it to stab the talisman from a distance. A simple poke is usually enough to unravel most talismans and make them inert."

"How long does it take you to make one of them?"

"Almost a month and the materials needed aren't easy to get. I've added every protection to this blade that I can so it can't be lost, stolen, or broken unless immense force that would probably destroy the surrounding area is used. I won't be making another."

I decided not to ask for details and we went back inside to find Shelly and Crescendo walking in at the same time.

"I've got a job," Shelly announced, passing a manila folder over to me as we went into the living room. Noire's face brightened at his announcement and I could see her excitement.

"But it is too dangerous for Noire."

And with that, she deflated like a balloon.

"This is actually dangerous for Thaddeus. You are not ready. I will get something more suited for a beginner soon enough," Shelly told Noire, who stopped pouting, but did look at me with some concern.

Shelly turned towards me and said, "Go ahead and get a shower and get suited up. You should probably head home, Noire. And remember what I told you."

"Yes sir, Mister Kaito," Noire responded, first making sure that she had everything that she had brought before touching her left arm and vanishing. Regarding what Shelly had told Noire, he had warned her against following me on any future missions due to the danger it created for us both.

I escaped the room and locked the bathroom door behind me before Serenade could leap. I undressed and enjoyed the first shower I had taken in a long time that was totally alone. I just wish that it didn't have to be so quick and I didn't have to use scent dampening body products instead of my usual stuff.

* * *

I was pulling my white gloves on while Shelly began the debriefing. The only member of our team not in the room was Waltz, who I had asked to go retrieve my mask.

"The client wants us to get back his stolen Pokemon. Here's a picture of the Pachirisu. His name is Capriccio."

Shelly passed the picture over to me and I looked at the electric type carefully, remembering all the minute details that made him unique. The man in the photo was mostly ignored. He was probably the one who hired us, but I didn't care about that right then.

"Is he certain that the target is where he says they are?"

I had to ask as going on fruitless missions always left a sour taste in my mouth. Especially missions like this.

"He is reasonably certain. I checked around and there are some rumors of trafficking going on in that area."

I lifted my eyes from the picture and said, "To what extent?"

"Sources think that it's low level. You'll probably find less than twenty people there."

I relaxed a bit at his words. I didn't think that he would be sending me off to steal something from a large trafficking ring without coming himself.

"Here is your mask," Waltz said, jumping up to the table and passing said mask to me.

"Thanks. Do you have a map ready for Waltz?" I asked Shelly, who pulled out and unfolded a paper.

"I have circled several spots that are good for teleporting to. I-"

His words were interrupted when my phone, which had been set aside while I donned my outfit, began buzzing.

I set my mask back down and said, "It's Mom. Just a minute."

I turned away from him, towards a wall, and answered the call.

"Hello?"

"Hey Thaddeus, how are things going with your studies?"

I nearly grit my teeth at the mundane question and how it was interfering with my debrief.

"They are going pretty well."

There was a slight pause before she spoke again.

"That was a bit short. Busy with something?"

I thought quickly, then said, "Yeah, I'm discussing some of my options after high school with Dad."

"Awesome! I'm glad to hear that you are thinking about that sort of thing. Have you considered trying to get a job for the WPO?"

Yeah, the only time I had thought of that was when I was much younger. That particular career path was closed to me.

"Maybe," I hedged, wary of giving her any slack in that topic.

"If you do decide to go after it, I've got several contacts that can help you get started."

"I'll keep that in mind. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

I hung up after that, put my phone down, and returned my attention to the table.

"We really do need to have a discussion regarding what you 'plan to do' after graduating," Shelly told me.

"Yeah, we can do that _after_ this mission is done. Everyone ready?"

* * *

"What is it with criminal organizations and warehouses?" Claves whispered to me as we looked at the structure across the street from our alleyway.

Waltz had been returned to his pokeball and stored away with Crescendo in his respective pokeball. Claves was the only one out as I needed her skills right then to avoid getting spotted.

"They are useful for holding a lot of stuff?" I suggested, to which she shrugged. I made a mental note to avoid warehouses when I decided to go big as Claves had a point.

"Whatever the reason, I need you to cover our path in an illusion that will make sure we are not noticed."

"Not noticed in the way that there's something more interesting?" Claves asked, a wide grin undoubtedly the result of imagining some form of chaos.

"More like not noticed because there is nothing to notice," I replied dryly.

"Such a bore. Give me a minute."

While I waited, I hesitantly extended my senses then drew them back in, letting out a wince in the process. The amount of liquid in the surrounding area was far too high, so I decided to wait and use Crescendo when we got closer.

"Done. Follow me."

Claves led the way and the guards who looked to be in professional uniforms did not notice us as we crossed the street and stopped close to a side door.

When I saw the number pad next to the door, I moved past it and found a covered air vent just a few steps beyond. A smile appeared on my face as I pulled out Serenade and let her out of her pokeball, hiding the flash of light with my body as best as I could.

"There's the air vent. You are the only one who can fit who can take care of any problems that may show up. Time to put that tiny body to use!" I dodged the tail that swung out and instead had Claves boost me up to the air vent grill. I had water in the screw holes and expanding in moments. Once the metal grill had popped off, Serenade climbed up Claves and myself and disappeared into the hole.

Claves let me down and we waited silently. I had thought about sending Waltz in there, but he was too inexperienced and this wasn't a mission I could risk him messing up on.

It took almost ten minutes before a quiet thump was heard on the other side of the door. The knob turned a moment later and the door opened on silent hinges.

I poked my head in to see a satisfied Ninetales licking one of her tails while sitting on the stomach of a chubby man who was on his back.

"Nice-what's up with him?"

Once I entered the room and got close enough, I saw that the man's eyes were wide open and he was blinking.

"Just a mild case of his consciousness taking a backseat while his regular bodily functions continue as they had been."

I decided to ignore that she had just, essentially, forced psychosis on someone and returned her to her pokeball without a word.

"Is your illusion going to hold up in here?" I asked, extending my senses and letting out an audible hiss when the information came flooding in. If it was one massive body of water, I wouldn't have so much trouble. The problem was the gaps in between all the sources of liquid that I sensed and the degree of accuracy that I perceived those sources. There was only so much my human mind could process, even with extensive training.

The thing was, I should have been far away enough from the other buildings that I should have been only able to sense those in the building. Unless the place was holding an army, it shouldn't have been such a flood of information.

"Only if I know the layout of the room. Gonna need mister uptight out here."

A single motion had Crescendo out and, after throwing an annoyed glance at Claves for her comment, he closed his eyes and his aura sensing organs lifted up into the air.

The frown that developed on his face did not spark confidence.

"What's the issue?"

"There are Pokemon all over the place."

"Yeah? That's what we expected. Can you give a rough estimate as to how many pokeballs that are in there? Or maybe the position of our target?"

"I count fifty-seven pokeballs in total."

Now it was my turn to frown.

"But you said that there were a lot of Pokemon? Make sure to count the ones that are stacked up or in containers."

"Still fifty-seven in total."

"Describe the situation in there," I said, feeling my frown deepen.

"The aforementioned pokeballs are all on connected to the belts of humans. The Pokemon inside are all in cages-"

"Seriously?" I hiss out, feeling my ire flare. Not only was that a cruel thing to do, it was inefficient. I mean, there were such things as pokeballs for Arceus' sake! They kept Pokemon in a state of partial stasis while inside, eliminating the need for guards if certain precautions are taken.

Really, there were so few pros to using cages over pokeballs that I wondered if the ones running the warehouse wanted to waste as many resources as possible. The cost of a ton of pokeballs is magnitudes lower than the same number of cages, if the cages were reinforced to hold Pokemon.

"Crescendo, fill Claves in on the locations of security cameras and guards. Let me know when it is time to move in," I ordered the two of them before taking a seat on a wooden box and closing my eyes to think.

This was none of my business, I told myself. Sure, this was bigger than what Shelly had thought (and his sources would be getting one heck of a lecture when I got back and let him know), but it still wasn't all that bad. As long as Claves could maintain her illusion, we would be able to get in and out without a hitch. I could still keep this mission simple.

"Ready to go," Crescendo told me and I rose. Crescendo led the way, telling Claves where cameras and guards were so she could create her illusions accordingly. We made our way through the hallways, having to pause and hold our breaths when one guard walked by, less than a yard away. It was almost funny how he didn't see the Lucario ready to slam a bone rush into him or me with an icicle ready to send flying. I'm sure Claves would have participated in this unseen menacing if she wasn't preoccupied with holding the illusion strong.

The open areas of warehouses normally gave me pause, but this time was different. I did not pause so much as lay eyes on the hundreds of cages stacked on one another and beat down the ire with no small amounts of effort.

"Have you located the target?" I asked Crescendo while we hid against some boxes, steadfastly ignoring the breathing of its occupant next to my head.

"I have three possible matches nearby," Crescendo responded, leading the way once more. Claves didn't say a word, far too busy concentrating as she made certain that not a single creature or machine could detect us. I made a note to reward the both of them for such a good job.

Crescendo led us to a cage and I shook my head, noticing that the electric type was a female, not the male that we were looking for.

"Next one," I said.

Crescendo looked at me for a moment before continuing to the next possible match.

It was hard to tell, with his eyes closed, but I could have sworn that I felt disapproval from him.

I pulled out the photograph and confirmed that the sleeping squirrel Pokemon that he led us to was our intended target.

"Claves, will you be able to cover the noise of the lock cracking?"

She responded with a nod, her expression becoming more intense as she concentrated more heavily.

The basic lock probably could've been picked, but I decided on the faster route and forced some water expand inside of it, letting out a sharp crack in the process of its breaking.

The breaking also made the cage shake a little and woke the single occupant. I held out my hands and whispered, "We are here to get you out. Nod if you understand."

They had jumped to the back of the cage, probably preparing some sort unpleasantly painful attack, but paused when I began speaking. His eyes flicked around, noticing Claves and Crescendo and the fact that there was nobody else around in uniform. A nod finally appeared, to my relief. I was pretty sure that Claves couldn't pull an illusion over the sounds of any sort of attack with such close proximity to others.

"Good. Please take a seat on my shoulder and stay very quiet. Do not speak, preferably."

I held out an arm for Capriccio and they climbed down it to my left shoulder. I ignored how the small weight was hardly noticed and closed the cage and melted the ice to prevent early discovery.

I turned to Crescendo and said, "Let's head out."

A frown appeared on Crescendo's face, but he didn't have to say anything as small pats caught my attention. I turned to see Capriccio, the one who patted me, and he pointed. My attention was drawn to the cages next to him. Apparently the ones who sorted the Pokemon did so by either typing or general size as two Pichu slept in the cage he pointed at.

"What? Are they your friends?"

The shaking head was almost a relief, if he didn't immediately start pointing out another cage, then another, and another.

I was glad that Capriccio stayed silent, but the silent disapproval radiating from Crescendo combined with Capriccio's pointing out of the obvious had my shoulders slumping somewhat.

"I was so hoping that this would be an easy mission."

* * *

 **? POV**

"Hello, this is-"

"I know who this is, just listen."

I paused, lips thinning at the caller's rudeness and the mechanical tinge to it. I knew a voice modifier when I heard one.

"As I have no idea who to call regarding a bunch of guards who work for a trafficking ring that I may or may not have just wrecked and iced up against a wall, a random WPO office seems to be my best option here."

"Did you just say something about a trafficking ring?" My boss was walking by at that moment and stopped at my words, coming closer.

"Yes. Now-"

"Hold on, my boss wants to speak with you," at least the pointing and grabbing motion seemed to indicate that.

"What is this about a trafficking ring? This office is for-"

"Yeah, I don't care if you are the office in charge of keeping the toilets clean. This was the first WPO office number that I found, so listen up."

I was glad that the phone was loud enough for me to hear it clearly and I didn't even pretend to look elsewhere as the conversation went on.

"There are currently about sixty-" A sound away from the phone made him pause before he continued.

"Okay, there are sixty-six people in various locations in the warehouse behind me. All of them are either unconscious and bound or behind a large enough wall of ice that they have no chance of escaping from."

My face wasn't the only one to light up with realization when I heard the caller mention ice.

"Also, there are around a thousand Pokemon held in cages in here, so you'll need to send someone who can take care of them."

"You have me convinced. Where is this location and who should I say is the one who tipped us off?"

There was a pause before a response was given.

"This is the Shellfish Thief. Let your superiors know that this will not be a reoccurring thing. Now you'd best have something ready to write this address down because I am hanging up once it's said."

* * *

 **Thaddeus' POV  
**

I pressed the button to end the call, then carelessly let the borrowed phone slip from my grasp. A small noise of protest came from behind me, which was ignored.

"You know, you could have just knocked them out," Crescendo told me while looking at the group of people stuck to the wall by ice. I was immensely grateful for the pipe that had been nearby as it had been the only way I was able to create such a display. The wall to my right was torn open and the pipe continued to let out water that slowly spread out through the noisy warehouse. The fight, short as it had been, had woken even the heaviest sleeper and the sounds of Pokemon howling for blood and freedom was a frightening noise indeed.

(I saw a Buneary with death promised in their eyes as they looked at the guards stuck to the wall. If I hadn't been able to understand the threats muttered under that fluffy Pokemon's breath, I might have thought it was cute.)

Once the call was finished, the phone dropped, and an extra layer of ice applied to the squirming guards, I gestured to my teammates to follow me.

They did so without a word.

I had Waltz teleport us to the top of a nearby building and returned Crescendo, keeping Claves out for her illusions.

It took twenty minutes before figures appeared out of nowhere, having teleported in, and the process of gathering all of the captured guards began. More people joined those already gathered. I recognized the unmistakable outline of Terry some time after the first few appeared and made sure to check for Blanc. Satisfied that he wasn't there, not that I had expected him to be, I stayed.

Pokemon Rangers appeared and began the process of transporting Pokemon out while armed people in WPO uniforms began to hack at the ice.

At the sight, I grinned and decided that a little reinforcement was in order. I began to melt the ice in certain spots while keeping other areas very frozen. It was slow, but everyone began to notice the sounds of the balls of ice clinking as they hit the ground. Hundreds of small pearls of ice, not all of them perfect like I usually did, fell to the ground along with the excess water. This, while making the job easier for the WPO, had the added affect of alerting them to my possible proximity.

Now I might have been a bit more worried about being discovered if I wasn't hiding in Claves' illusion or high above them, watching through the window.

"I think they got the idea," Claves told me, grinning at the sight of some people losing their balance on the balls of ice.

"Just making sure to hammer it in," I said, my voice giving away the grin I was displaying.

A small tap reminded me of our mission.

"You can talk now, if you wish," I told Capriccio. The sounds of quiet conversation wouldn't be heard over the general din caused by those below.

"Why did you rescue me?"

My head twisted around, instinctively trying to locate the owner of the deep voice who had managed to sneak up on us.

"I should have expected that reaction," the same deep voice muttered and I was shocked to find that it came from the one on my shoulder.

"Claves. Correct me if I'm wrong, but does Capriccio have a voice deeper than my father's?"

The howling laughter of the Zoroark rolling on the ground was all the answer I needed. I sighed at the revelation and noticed, with a hint of panic, that some people were pointing up towards where we were, obviously able to hear her cackling.

Then everyone was moving quickly and it was immediately obvious that Claves had dropped her illusion in her laughter. I returned her to her pokeball and stepped a little closer to the edge, motioning for Waltz to step back to avoid their line of sight.

The noise level of those below rose quite a bit when I looked over the edge.

Various flashes of light told me that Pokemon were being introduced to the equation and I told Waltz, "Time to get out of here. Back to the park."

I sent a jaunty wave at those below before my surroundings changed to an empty field. My arm dropped and I finally answered Capriccio.

"Your owner hired me to get you back from the ones who stole you."

A derisive snort was not what I expected as a response.

"Stole me? I didn't get stolen from him. He sold me to pay off his debts."

I stiffened and said, "Want to expand a bit on that?"

"Certainly. The idiot borrowed money from the wrong people and couldn't pay it back without losing everything, so he offered them me."

I let out a sigh at his words and straightened up when I heard the sound of someone moving through the bushes that led to the main path of the park the payment was supposed to be made in.

The same man who I had seen in the picture walked into sight, looked decidedly less chipper than in the picture that had been provided. He seemed more upbeat at the sight of Capriccio.

At the brightened face, I said, "Payment first."

He nodded and took out an envelope. A short toss had it in my hands and, after making sure that there wasn't a trap, I counted it out quickly.

"Do you want to go back?" I said quietly, just loud enough for Capriccio and Waltz, both on my shoulders, to hear.

"Not really."

"You squeamish about being on the wrong side of the law?"

"Look at who this idiot dealt with. At least you can take care of anyone who comes knocking."

"Good enough."

I put away the money, content that it was all there.

"You have your money, now get over here Capriccio!" He held his arms out open like he expected Capriccio to come running.

It was more than a little awkward for him to hold the pose, waiting for the immobile electric squirrel to move.

"You know, if you are going to sell your Pokemon off to pay off debts, you shouldn't be surprised when they lose any reason to want to be with you," I drawled, causing him to flinch. I suppose that he didn't expect me to find out.

"You've been paid!"

"So I have. Now I have no reason to keep him from going with you. You are free to leave."

It wasn't unsurprising when I didn't feel a muscle twitch from the occupant of my left shoulder.

"Well it appears that he doesn't feel like going with you."

"Now you li-"

"How about _you listen_. And listen carefully. Consider Capriccio no longer your problem. If I hear about you going to the authorities about getting him back, I will make you regret it. You will not attempt to find Capriccio again, nor myself. Now teleport us back home."

That last line was to Waltz, who obeyed and sent us to our living room. I heard some sound from the kitchen and moved towards it, finding Shelly pouring some tea into a cup.

"Capriccio's old owner apparent sold him to pay off debts. He wasn't stolen. Also, your sources are crap and apparently can't identify a major trafficking ring when it's all but shouting that it is one."

Shelly simply blew the steaming tea, took a sip, then procured several more ceramic containers. I let out the rest of my team and poured the tea into four cups for those of us with the ability to hold them and the one ceramic bowl for Serenade.

Once we were all seated with our tea, Shelly said, "Now explain."

* * *

And that's a wrap!

I apologize for the lateness of this chapter, and I have an announcement to make regarding it.

As you probably know, I am in college. For those of you who do not know, college is hard. Or at least it takes more effort than High School ever did. To cut to the chase: I doubt I will be able to keep up this schedule of a chapter every two weeks. I finished up with the last of my finals just five hours prior to writing this message and, in those five hours, I was able to write the last 3,000 words of this chapter. The reason I didn't do this before is because finals took up every waking moment.

I'll write as much as possible over winter break, but Spring semester will see a sharp decline in the amount of available time that I can dedicate to writing. Schooling is infinitely more important than a hobby that I gain nothing substantial (beyond praise and some enjoyment) from, so it takes priority.

I truly do hate making this announcement, but this is how things are going to have to be. I nearly messed my GPA really badly, and it may already be hanging by a thread, so I need to dedicate everything to schooling.

Until next time,

Talkingbirdguy


	9. Another Type of Job

Phantom Thief chap 9

It's a bit of a slow chapter, but plot-necessary. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me...'cept Sigma. He's mine. I'm not about to let Nintendo regulate him to a background character as the sometimes-painfully-inept Ash goes around doing his Chosen One shtick. Sigma is too precious for something like that.

*Holds Sigma close and sends the chapter right along.*

* * *

Chapter 9

 **Another Type of Job**

My eyelids parted when the still-foreign sensation of Crescendo connecting to my mind became apparent. I had learned that that particular sensation was a lot like the pokes one would use with a long stick to see if something was awake rather than any attempt to communicate.

"What do you want?" I muttered out loud, not even bothering to think the words towards him like he had trained me to do whenever he established contact. I was still half asleep and far too tired to try. The alarm clock next to my bed let me know that I had gotten less than three hours of sleep and all I wanted to do was rectify that situation.

Seeing as you had to think up the words, to a certain extent, when you spoke them, Crescendo heard my irate inquiry and responded promptly.

"You are on the news at the moment."

I ignored how Serenade, who was not prepared for the action, began to choke me when I jumped up out of my bed. Waltz, to my surprise and envy, continued to slumber as I ran from the room and down the stairs to the living room.

Serenade stopped holding on so tightly before I began to lose consciousness and I skidded to a halt in front of the television. It was a surprise that Serenade wasn't flung off by the sudden deceleration. I was grateful that she hadn't let out a curse in her surprise at my actions.

"Three and a quarter seconds," a certain stopwatch-holding Zoroark declared. I gave the sight a moment of consideration, then looked to the television.

"-is indeed correct, the news is true. The WPO has recently busted a black market Pokemon trafficking ring. A branch office of the WPO received a call from an individual who reported that the guards at the location had been subdued and, when WPO agents arrived at the scene, it was true! The criminals in the building that housed the Pokemon were all incapacitated and are now in WPO custody.

"Some have asked who the one who did all that is and, though we did confirm it with a WPO official afterwards, this clip made it all-too-obvious."

The square depicting the logo of the news station was replaced by a familiar scene. The camera was among a milling group of people in uniforms and it turned to the guards I had frozen to the wall just as soon as it began melting, letting the pearls that I had kept frozen fall to the ground. The tinkling of the ice hitting the concrete pleased my ears almost as much as when someone mentioned a figure up on a building nearby. The camera did not pick up Claves' howls of laughter but did the job admirably when turning towards me and zooming in. The back of my neck prickled when I saw the white uniform and snowflake-adorned mask. That was the first, clear, picture of me that the public would receive and I was glad it was that one as it was a bit more dignified than the one where I was about to dive out of the window.

I watched as I stepped a little closer to the edge and grinned when I waved. I fist pumped when I could see the mocking behind the gesture; just what I had been going for!

"Yes, that is the Shellfish Thief. Though some have tried to claim credit, sources have confirmed that the Shellfish Thief is the one who gave the WPO-"

The reporter paused and turned away from the camera, a finger going up to the device in her ear. After a moment of listening, she faced the camera once more.

"It appears that a member of the team formed to capture the Shellfish Thief has decided to give a public message to their target. A reporter on the scene is setting things up right now."

The scene transitioned to a black screen before a desk with an empty chair appeared. I raised an eyebrow at the sight.

"Sir, the camera is ready," someone whispered off-camera.

"Oh! My bad." The figure was practically a blur as he moved towards the seat and flung himself into the chair, somehow not tipping it over in his hurry. I must admit, I was impressed by how nonchalant Terry looked after such an action. I was also a little surprised to see him in some nice clothing and that his hair, and fur, were more neat than the last time I had seen him.

"Hello, everyone. My name is Terry and I am a leader of the team dedicated to finding and apprehending the one known as the Shellfish Thief. As much as I would enjoy taking about random nonsense that nobody cares about, I have neither a career in politics nor the free time to waste on such inane things. I am here to speak about-to, rather, the Shellfish Thief."

Terry shifted a bit and cleared his throat before speaking once more.

"Firstly, the WPO wishes to extend thanks for your actions in the discovery and subsequent dismantling of the trafficking ring's activities. You have the thanks of a great many trainers who have had their Pokemon stolen from them and the thanks of the Pokemon themselves for their freedom."

"Secondly, and this is my personal opinion," he gives the camera a toothy grin before he continued with "great job. This doesn't get you a get-out-of-jail free card, but it gets some respect from me."

"How wonderful," I drawled. "That's all I ever wanted." The sarcasm was almost tangible in my voice.

"Lastly, a message from my team." At this, the glint in his eyes that had appeared at the beginning of the second message seemed to sharpen. Everything about him seemed to get more intense as he spoke.

"We expect this chase to be long and exhausting for the both of us. Just know that the end result will be you behind ice-resistant bars. Expect to stay on your toes. I will find out the face that hides behind that mask."

With that, Terry stood and walked off-screen. There was an awkward pause before I heard, "I was on T.V.!" The excited giggle that came from an off-screen Terry was unexpected and made me laugh while the camera suddenly blanked. I hit the mute button as the previous reporter reappeared.

A moment was spent reveling in the news, silently grinning in the quiet.

"Thanks for calling me," I told Crescendo before moving towards the stairs, the moment over.

"What are you doing?" Claves asked.

"Going back to sleep. I'm getting a few more hours in."

"Just as long as you shut up, I don't care," Serenade, who had fallen back asleep when I had stopped moving in front of the television, muttered without opening her eyes.

I grunted in response and gratefully returned to my bed. I was pleasantly surprised that the news and the WPO had been honest instead of trying to pin the blame on me. I suppose my actions for clearing my name left a lasting impression.

Good.

I was just beginning to drift off once again when my phone buzzed. I opened my left eye, tipped the screen towards me, then placed it on silent. Noire could wait and Shelly had other ways of alerting me if it was an emergency.

I shouldn't have been surprised, I really shouldn't have been, when I was only able to sleep another hour before the sudden materialization of someone teleporting at the edge of our property, near the road, became apparent to me.

The teleporting caught my attention, causing me to wake, and the familiar liquid content had me getting up quickly and checking my phone. The fifteen missed texts and three missed calls from Noire were ignored, but the one text from my mom explained exactly what was going on.

"Serenade, Mom is visiting. Shelly is out along with Crescendo and Claves. Oh good, you're awake, Waltz. Just make sure to stay hidden and do not let her know you're here," I told him while throwing on some clothes at lightning speed. I checked and confirmed that Capriccio was not in the house.

I was halfway down the stairs when the doorbell rang and finished combing my hair before I opened the door. I just had to pray that the quick job would be enough to tame the bedhead.

"Hey, Mom. Sor-Are you okay?" I had cut myself off when I realized that I wasn't the only one who looked sleep-deprived. She had bags under her eyes and her posture was far more slumped than usual. I gestured for her to come in and she did.

Even her tone was tired as she plopped down onto the couch and said, "Yeah, I've just been up for awhile. I've been absolutely swamped with things to do with how the Shellfish Thief went and took down that trafficking ring."

"Oh? How did you get pulled into helping with that?" I asked, happily taking a seat myself. Serenade was snoozing on my shoulders and Mom kept her voice low as she spoke.

"Hmm. I sometimes assist the team hunting down the Shellfish Thief. Because it was the Shellfish Thief that did all the work, the team has been all over the scene and are combing it for clues. I've been responsible for filing their reports."

I was elated that she wasn't directly on the team. That would have been disastrous.

Especially when she knew about my abilities. She knew how I could freeze water, how I had control over ice, and that I could melt it, but not the extent of my abilities. Most of the training I received from Shelly had been out of her sight. She had never seen me build huge walls of ice, shoot icicles, or anything truly impressive. Only Shelly knew everything I was capable of. Shelly and my team. Shelly and my team and Noire...I hoped that list wouldn't get larger.

That was probably the only reason I wasn't already on the run, behind bars, or being heavily scolded by my mother. She probably knew I could be the Shellfish Thief, because of my abilities, but didn't think I was because she underestimated my skills with them.

"But that's not what I'm here for. I managed to get you a job helping out at the office!"

 _Code Red! Code Red!_

"That sounds nice, but I'm still-"

"I know, I know. I get that you're still thinking about your options and I understand that. I just think that it might do you some good to at least give it a shot. You only have two more weeks left in school after your finals, right?"

"Yes ma'am," I answered, trying to find a place to jump in and failing.

"Well I asked my boss if I could bring you in and, after explaining that you could help with toting paperwork and some minor tasks, he accepted immediately! You start twenty minutes after school ends and the Pokemon that your friend, Blanc, is using will bring you along when they teleport. This'll look great on a resume!"

* * *

Considering the bullheadedness of my mother when she wanted things done, I had absolutely no chance to try and politely turn down the offer.

Shelly was just arriving when she was leaving. Poor man didn't even get out a, "Good afternoon, Pearl," before being told, with no hesitation, "Thaddeus is coming to work with me after school on Monday. Bye bye, honey! Bye, Shelly."

I said my goodbye with a dazed look on my face. Shelly shared my expression to a certain degree, turning to me with a questioning gaze once my mom had closed the door behind her.

"She set it with her boss so I really couldn't get out of it," I told him, leaning back and rubbing my head. Despite the hours I had managed to get in, the lack of sleep along with the sudden appearance of my mom had a headache forming.

"What's the plan?" I asked him as I rubbed my head, wishing I could get back to my bed but not seeing the chance in my near future.

"Hmm. This isn't a bad thing, actually."

I opened one eyelid and stared at him for a moment before closing it once more.

"We both know that your mother knows of your abilities. This puts you in a very dangerous place as we do not know if she had decided to tell anyone on the team hunting the Shellfish Thief."

I raised an eyebrow towards him, eyes still firmly shut.

"Though I doubt it, we shouldn't discard the possibility. How long is this supposed to last?"

"I think she mentioned just as long as this fiasco with the trafficking ring affects the office. No idea how long that's going to be."

Shelly hummed for a moment. I decided to walk to the living room and, using only my memory, traversed my way to the window and closed the blinds. It was only after the lighting in the room was reduced to pleasantly dim that I dared open my eyes again.

"Looks like this is a good opportunity to clear your name," Shelly declared, a glint in his eye as ideas came to him.

"Mind explaining to those of us who can't read minds?"

"Hey!" Crescendo exclaimed.

"Claves will be vital in this and I will get a chance to play around a little. Hmmm."

"I don't think he can hear us," I said to Crescendo, leaning away from Shelly as an unsettling smile settled on his lips.

"And that's my cue to bail. Noire's probably sent me thirty texts by now, so I've gotta go take care of that."

I retreated, leaving Crescendo to stand around and ponder on Shelly's muttered ramblings. Claves had escaped before me and was off doing her own thing.

Serenade woke up at some point on my way back to my room and let out a long yawn before issuing a single command.

"Food, now."

"Give me a minute," I muttered and snagged my phone. I walked on autopilot towards the kitchen, bypassing the living room, and read the texts on my way there. I set it aside for a minute to fix Serenade a bowl of Pokemon-friendly cereal while I grabbed a granola bar for myself and snacked on it while catching back up on what Noire sent me. Most of it was along the same line: "Why didn't you bring me along?" I could practically hear the whine behind the words.

She never explained what precisely she was complaining about, making it seem as though I hadn't brought her along to a party or something along those lines. Very normal for a teenager at the end of her senior year.

I decided to text her back with, [Meet me at the Limping Doughboy if you want some answers. I'm getting some lunch.]

As we had been busy with training, our visits to our favorite pastry place had decreased by quite a bit and I felt like going by and saying hello as well as getting something a little more filling than a granola bar.

Once Serenade was finished, I pulled on a thin long-sleeve shirt and made my way to the door.

"Headed to the Doughboy," I declared into the house and I heard a grunt from Shelly. Satisfied with the response, I left.

* * *

The May weather was warm and pleasantly humid as I went to the Limping Doughboy. The place was pretty filled up and I had to wait in a short line before ordering.

"Afternoon, Leon," I greeted the Lucario, who turned from the last customer to me.

I felt him connect to my mind as I placed my order. It was kind of weird, hearing his voice both inside and outside my mind. Had a sort of overlapping effect and I tried focusing on the quieter one while still responding to the one the other customers would hear.

"Is the news accurate?"

I had to concentrate to think back, "About taking down the traffickers, yeah."

"Daniel wants to talk with you," he told me in the privacy of our heads while ringing up my order. I thanked him, verbally, before moving around the counter and heading into the back room. It would take Noire a little while before she arrived and I didn't want to keep the man waiting.

I couldn't use my abilities to check, but I was pretty sure that Sigma wasn't back there. It was a little odd, seeing the room so quiet as I went to Daniel's office door and knocked.

"Come in."

I came in, closing the door behind me, and said, "Leon said you wanted me?"

Daniel set down some papers he had been reading.

"The WPO is having an interesting time after the stunt you pulled."

"I plead innocence in the case of good intentions," I said with my hands in a surrendering gesture. Pretty sure his lips twitched, just a little, at that.

"Terry actually asked me to call in some old favors to help the WPO out with sorting out all the Pokemon found in that warehouse."

"Good to hear that they are being taken care of," I said after letting my arms fall to my sides.

"Why were you there in the first place?"

I relaxed a little as the reason he wanted to speak to me became clear.

"I was hired to retrieve someone's Pokemon from the traffickers. They said that they had been stolen though it turned out that they had given them their Pokemon to pay off their debts." I was careful not to give specifics as a thief who gave out information like that wasn't looked kindly upon by others in the underworld. Even if said info was about a jerk who probably deserved what came to him.

"But, before then, I was there and didn't much care for what I saw."

"So you took down an entire trafficking ring just because you did not like what you saw?" Daniel said, his voice dry.

I shrugged, then said, "That's the long and short of it. How is Sigma doing? Haven't spoken to him in awhile."

Daniel did not comment on the change in topic, but did say, "Those Legendaries are still coming around. Victini still hasn't moved on."

"So he's having a grand time," I summarized with a small grin. The news that nothing bad had yet happened because of the Legendaries was good to hear.

"They are suspicious of you, Terry and his team," Daniel said, and making me stiffen. The smile I had been wearing went away, replaced by the grim visage of a face ready to discuss business.

"How so?"

"Terry told me that someone tipped them off that you were a possible suspect, though they do not have any evidence as of yet."

I felt a little betrayed that my mother had told them anything, if it was her that did it. It was odd how I hoped that it was her rather than someone else. If it was her, they knew the basics about me and little else. If it was someone else, then I had no idea just how much the WPO knew.

Knowledge is power and I wasn't sure how much power the WPO had.

"Thanks for the info. Why are you letting me know?" Information wasn't an easy resource to procure and what he was telling me would be very useful. It was also very illegal information he was handing over. We both knew that I wouldn't squeal on him for telling me that sort of info, I owed him too much, but it was still a large risk for him.

"Consider it a reward for what you did with those traffickers. If you had simply called the WPO onto them, there would have been casualties. The information is for going the extra mile."

"Noted," I responded, switching gears with the next sentence.

"Now that that is all out of the way, Noire is probably waiting for me to tell her about the details about the mission since she couldn't go on it. I hope that there's a table left."

"You are crazy enough to talk about that in the middle of my shop?" Daniel's voice was raised slightly and I quickly replied.

"She's got abilities of her own that will prevent anyone from listening in. I'm training her to be a Thief. It's a long story."

Daniel scowled as he said, "Just don't be making that a habit. If I begin to think that my shop is becoming a place for your people to gather then we are going to have some _words._ "

"No scheming in the Limping Doughboy, got it!" I said, backing towards the door.

Daniel looked down at his papers and I accepted the dismissal for what it was.

Noire waved to me from a table and I went to her. I saw the small stones sitting on the edges of the table and felt the ambient noise of the other people become just a little muted when I crossed the invisible line that they formed.

"They can't hear anything they don't expect to hear and won't be able to read our lips, so spill!" Noire told me, practically ordering me as she bit down on a pastry in a vicious motion.

* * *

"That would have been such good experience!" Noire hissed, her ire obvious and pout even more so.

"It was also immensely dangerous," I told her, my voice calm and unimpressed with her tone.

"The only reason I even did what I did is because I had Claves, Crescendo, and Serenade all with me and ready to back me up. They all have a lot of experience, far more than myself, and I relied on them to help me take down that warehouse."

And they had helped, a lot. Serenade probably did the least amount of work, yet she set a guard, who was about to stab me in the back, on fire. Sure, I may have seen them in time and defended myself accordingly (with a good amount of violence). But there was always the chance of me getting badly hurt. If the warehouse hadn't been in such an inhabited area, they might have been more heavily armed and possessed guns rather than knives and Pokemon.

"I'll make sure you get a job soon, don't worry about it," I told her, sipping on my drink as I relaxed a little. I had gotten some rest, some food, and now my nerves were beginning to settle a little. I even had some useful information that I would be passing on to Shelly as soon as I saw him again.

* * *

"That's great!" Blanc told me excitedly as I finished up telling him why I was standing next to him, having purposely avoided doing so until that point. I was not keen on his reaction as I knew how it would go.

"Yeah, great," I said in a decidedly less enthused tone. Shelly had told me that this was a great chance to get the suspicion off of my back, but that didn't mean I would enjoy the heavy lifting and brain-numbing work that awaited me.

Heck, the finals we were in the middle of taking weren't as troublesome as this job was going to be, I could feel it.

"See you later," Noire said to us once the Pokemon that was to bring us to the WPO appeared. I had told her about my new 'job' when we met at the Limping Doughboy and she had hung around for moral support.

"Let's get this over with," I muttered under my breath before I felt the sensation of teleportation.

* * *

End of Chapter

Y'all are lucky that I'm on break or this chapter wouldn't be out this soon. I'll try to write a bit of the next before my break ends and maybe it'll be out in a semblance of a timely manner.

To the Christians, and whoever might celebrate it, Merry Christmas! To the Jews, Happy Hanukkah! To the Muslims, I hope you had a good time celebrating Milad un Nabi! (I apologize if I used that in the wrong context.) And to everyone else, hope y'all have a nice end to 2016!

I normally don't do this, but The Void Wonders' review got a chuckle out of me and, due to them being a guest, I can not show my appreciation for such a thing by private messaging them.

 _In regards to your expectations, TVW, I did manage to barely scrape by with a 3.3 (if you round up a 3.27), so I met your expectations. I certainly hope to improve those qualities and to keep my grades high._

 _The thing that gave me a chuckle is when you said my story isn't at the level of Art of War. Not sure why, it just did and that led to me typing this out in thanks. Hope you eventually get a profile as anyone who has read Art of War has my attention. Sun Tzu has such sage advice.  
_

Thanks, all, for reading. Please review and tell me what you thought of it and what paperwork-related horrors that Thaddeus will have to endure next chapter. Who knows, I may incorporate one or two suggestions into the next chapter.


	10. In the Belly of the Beast

Phantom Thief chap 10

A note for those who live in places that do not follow the custom. The 1st floor is often known as the ground floor in buildings with multiple levels. The same floor you enter the building in (assuming that the area around the building is flat). Just gonna clear that up to prevent any confusion. It's a minor detail.

Disclaimer: The only thing I claim in this story is the long times between updates. Sorry about that.

* * *

Chapter 10

 **In the Belly of the Beast**

Blanc bid me farewell once the somewhat disorienting feeling of teleportation faded. The surreal feeling of standing in the central hub of the WPO, having just passed by the entrance to the office dedicated to hunting me down, died quickly enough once I saw all the paper.

The stacks and stacks of paper...

I suspected that the amount of ink in that room could have supplied the needs of a small nation for a month.

"I thought the WPO was top of the line! Why isn't everything holograms and computer-based?" I quietly complained as I set a tower of paper next to about five other knee-high stacks. They had all come from a single stack and had been separated for easier transportation. I peeked and read a few of them, confirming my suspicions that the paperwork had to do with relocating the freed Pokemon in the warehouse among other related topics.

A part of me wished I could complain and say that I had done my part and leave the heavy lifting to some intern or something. Surely karma would have pity on me? I did free a warehouse full of Pokemon and take out criminals. That was considered a good deed, right?

"Thank you, Mr. Kaito," Mrs. Finley, a lady who had the same job as my mom, told me. I had been helping her for the last few hours with various tasks after an employee appeared, asked who I was, then led me to Mrs. Finley's office with instructions to help her out. I vaguely remembered Mom mentioning the name Finley, possibly her boss, so I went along with it.

I just wish I wasn't regulated to what almost equated an intern. It was degrading to a thief of my skill and reputation.

"No problem. What's next?" I resisted the reflexive urge to put my hands in my pockets and instead put them behind my back, the pose respectful and less awkward than simply leaving them by my sides. Shelly had taught me the necessities for infiltration and being able to act respectful was something incredibly basic.

"Here's your temporary authorization. It will be good for the two weeks you will be with us. You'll need it to get to room 137-B, which is where you have been requested to help at next. Take the elevator to the ground floor and you'll find it easily enough," Mrs. Finley tells me as she passes me a card with a small picture of me on it. I thanked her and made my way to the elevator, hopeful that my next assignment would be paperwork-free.

The building I was in was not the actual main headquarters of the WPO. I was certain of that. Shelly told me that the main HQ resided on an artificially created island and that it moved constantly. I had checked out a few windows in the building I was in and noted mountains in the distance beyond a sprawling city.

I had once asked Shelly where the island was and he had acquired a faraway look in his eyes, taking a minute before he answered with, "Now knowing that kind of information would be something all right."

I shook off the memory as I entered the empty elevator and, when the scanner prompted me to do so, held my card up to it. Once the green light appeared, I hit the big 1 and waited. My neck itched and I resisted the urge to attempt to locate the cameras that I had felt on me since the moment I had teleported in.

It might have been a little presumptuous of me, but I felt like they were all focused on me. That someone was analyzing my movements. I wouldn't have acted any differently, but I was glad that Daniel had warned me about Terry and his team suspecting me. It made it so that I knew the paranoia I felt was not unwarranted.

The elevator dinged and felt my pulse spike when six people in body armor and wielding assault rifles were revealed as the door opened.

Only the sight of their weapons being held casually rather than pointed forward kept me from busting the pipes I felt running under them and blowing my cover sky-high.

"Ah, I'm supposed to be here," I said, holding my pass like it was a shield.

The lady in the front of the group blinked, then said, "We're just getting on the elevator."

There was an awkward pause before I said, "Right, sorry about that." I made my way out of there as quickly as I could do so while still walking. The chuckles heard behind me were ignored as I suppressed the embarrassment and kept my eyes peeled for the door I was had been told to go to.

I noted the lack of larger windows on the first floor and, begrudgingly, admired the WPO's sense for security. The larger windows, which were apparently on the upper floors only, made breaking into a location a simple affair. I would know.

Finding the right door took me awhile as I had managed to make a wrong turn and needed to backtrack. The door was guarded by several people in seemingly normal, if work-appropriate, clothes. It took me a moment to realize that they were guards as I did not see any guns on them, only several pokeballs on their persons.

I think it said something about me when I am more used to seeing people hold guns than society's usual method of protection: pokeballs. Some people actually wore pokeballs that had no Pokemon in them to ward off possible attackers. I had a strong feeling that the ones at the door I approached did not follow that trend.

"Excuse me, I was told to come help out down here," I told them while holding my card out when I saw one of them pull out a small scanner. The man verified that I was authorized to be there and opened up the door for me with instructions to head outside and head to the first person I saw.

Now, up until that point, I hadn't really thought about where the Pokemon that had been rescued from the warehouse would have been taken. I hadn't put any thought into it and, beyond assisting with the paperwork involved, I did not intend on doing anything further. It was when I stepped through another door that led outside when I found out where some had been brought.

The noise from the presence of hundreds of Pokemon hit me like a wave and I spent a moment looking over the gigantic field at it all. Any individual voices I may have translated were lost in the general din. I could see humans scattered around the crowd, performing different tasks. Several vehicles had been pulled out onto the field and I was somewhat surprised that there weren't Pokemon climbing all over them.

I noticed that there was a man who looked to be somewhere in his forties closest to me and went straight towards him.

"Excuse me," I said, raising me voice to catch their attention. They were filling up what looked to be a long line of bowls with food from a large bag when he turned to me.

"I was sent to help by Mrs. Finley. I'm Thaddeus Kaito."

There was a spark of recognition. It was barely there and I half suspected it was my paranoia talking, but I saw it. It appeared, not once I introduced myself, but after he turned towards me. He recognized my face. Warning flags waved themselves wildly in my head.

"Just call me Shade. There's some bags of feed over on the back of the truck. Each bowl has a typing on it. Make sure to pour at least two scoops from the cups into the right bowls. Start on that end and move back this way." He gave his orders out quickly and I snapped right to work once he was finished.

While I worked, I wracked my brain for the name Shade. I felt as though I had heard that name before but nothing came to mind as I went from bowl to bowl and filled each one with the kind of food that they indicated. I noticed that a few people gathered the bowls and brought them to another location after I finished the section and, with everyone doing their own part, we were done in half an hour.

"Thanks for the help. We need every hand working to keep this bunch fed," the lady said, indicating the slightly less noisy crowd of Pokemon that were only like that because of the food that they were provided.

"No problem-" I twisted when I felt the fast approach of liquid and just barely blocked the water bottle from smacking me in the chest. The movement had been thoughtless and I raised an eyebrow at Shade who had only given a warning a moment before impact. He was drinking from a bottle of his own and did not notice my expression. I did not comment and enjoyed the water, thirsty from the work. I moved closer to Mr. Shade, intent on asking what we would be doing next, when I noticed something.

"You've got some thing orange on your neck," I informed him, touching my own to indicate the location.

"Ah, I've been slacking," he muttered and tipped his head back with another drink from his water, causing the collar from his shirt to raise up and obscure the orange. I raised an eyebrow at his words but received no explanation.

"Anyways," I said, "What's next? My break doesn't start for awhile."

Mr. Shade waved for me to follow him and he led me into the building. As we walked, I glanced at his neck and saw that the orange had vanished. A frown appeared on my face when I couldn't see a smudge or anything that indicated him washing it off.

He only started speaking after a little ways into the building, having stayed silent until that point even as he passed a few checkpoints, waving in my direction to indicate that I was with him. I made a mental note to ask Shelly about him and how he was well known enough to be recognized my sight alone.

"Terry told me that you can understand Pokemon. You are probably aware of how rare such an ability is and you'll be helping my wife out with questioning Pokemon and finding out where they want to be relocated to. Behave yourself. Her ears pack a serious punch."

I nearly stumbled at that last line, convinced I had misheard but deciding to not comment. I wish I had. The shock of seeing the extra appendages would have been lessened if I had. Sure, the only reaction I had was widened eyes. Even if neither of them saw it, I disliked the moment of honest surprise that was exposed at the first glimpse of those ears.

Mr. Shade knocked once on the door before walking in. I followed, saw the woman behind the desk, then understood the warning Mr. Shade had given me. Along with tan fluff in a few locations, the lady had large appendages that were undoubtedly the ears of a Lopunny. I wondered what the chances of actually meeting more than one of the poor souls that had been experimented on by that terrorist organization were.

"This is the kid Terry mentioned. I'm sure you can put him to work for an hour or two," Shade told her before taking his leave.

She blinked twice at the sudden arrival and leave before looking at me and asking, "You can understand Pokemon, right?"

I was beginning to regret telling Terry my lesser power in the back of the Limping Doughboy as more and more people seemed to learn about it every minute.

"Yes ma'am. It takes a minute for me to adjust to Pokemon I haven't met before but I can usually understand them when I concentrate."

"Perfect!" she exclaimed, a smile appearing on her face.

"You have no idea how hard it is to get someone who can reliably communicate with Pokemon down here. Even psychic types are usually dedicated to teleportation and heavy lifting duties and we haven't been able to snag any so far."

She rose from her desk and led me through a few hallways. I saw lines of Pokemon standing outside a few doors and the lady guided me through one of them. An older man was behind a desk and stopped speaking when we came in.

"This is the new helper. Show him the ropes and get him to work. Call me if there's anything."

"Yes, Ms. Sierra," the man told her as she left.

* * *

I ignored the headache that was forming and focused once more as the next Pokemon walked in. Most of the Pokemon that were sent to me were all ones who knew either where they were from or where they wanted to go. I just had to find an approximate location through questioning and enter the information onto the laptop that I was given. There were quite a few Pokemon that had been stolen and, while I was happy to help them get to their proper owners, the constant concentrating was wearing me down. If they had all been the same species, I may have gotten used to it and not have felt anything. The problem came with the fact that a different type of Pokemon walked through the door each time and I had to adjust to understand them.

The next one through the door was a Riolu and I internally cheered. I had been around enough Lucario that a Riolu would take no effort and I lowered my concentration slightly, grateful for the ease that they presented.

"Please have a seat so we can begin. First off, do you know where you want to go? The WPO is willing to transport you to your rightful home just as soon as we are able," I told them, trying my best not to be monotonous as I had said that line far too much already. It was what the guy who had filled me in on what I would be doing had said and he had told me I should recite it.

The Riolu climbed up the chair and sat on the edge as I spoke.

"I was born in the black market and never have been outside it."

My cheer at the ease of understanding him crashed when I heard that. It wasn't the first time I had heard a story like his and clicked onto the tab that I had used a few times when given that answer. I took a look at him and saw that they had the looks of a Pokemon that had been in captivity for a long time. Their fur was lackluster and looked like it had only just begun being taken care of recently. Some areas were patchy and the cautious expression on their face was once I did not like to see on Pokemon because I knew the reasons behind them. I repressed the images of others I had seen in that warehouse as I spoke.

"Any idea what you want to do or where you want to go now that you are free?"

I received a shrug as a response and wished that I was surprised by the reaction. I typed 'Riolu' into the database I was connected to and quickly looked over the options.

"Would you prefer living primarily with Pokemon or-"

"Pokemon," he interrupted me and I took it in stride, adding that to the filters and scanning it once more. I wasn't surprised by his answer.

"Do you prefer living in a city sort of setting or more outdoors?"

They spent a moment thinking, then said, "I would like to see how the wild is, if there is any place that can really be called safe."

I refined my search, asked a few more questions, then found a good option.

"There is this place called the Sanctuary. It has a village primarily comprised of Lucario and Riolu with the only human dwelling nearby being the home of the people responsible for the upkeep of the Sanctuary. There is a city several miles away from the perimeter of the Sanctuary, but it is probably the best option with your criteria." I turned the laptop towards him with pictures of the surrounding area pulled up.

They asked me about the other options and ended up choosing the Sanctuary. I tried clicking on the button that would contact someone to come and take the Riolu to the Sanctuary, but found none available. It had been on every other option, so I couldn't help but frown when one did not show up then.

"Something is wrong?"

"Just a minor error. Come with me. I'll ask Ms. Sierra about it. This has happened before." According to the old man, it had. This was the first time that it had done so for me.

I asked the remaining few Pokemon that were outside my door to go to the old man's door just in case I was gone for awhile and brought the Riolu to Ms. Sierra's office, keeping my distance from him as I did so.

Thankfully, she was there when I knocked on the door. I entered and explained what happened when I selected the Sanctuary.

"Ah, I understand why that happened. Entrance to the Sanctuary is something a little more complicated than other locations."

She typed away on her computer for a few moments, then told me, "I doubt you have clearance to go to his office, so find Shade in room 385 and tell him that you need to get into contact with Simmons about access to the Sanctuary." A paper was printed out behind her and she reached back, grabbed it, then deposited it into my hands. All without looking up from her screen.

"Show Simmons that paper if he tries to get out of the job, not that I imagine he will. Return here once that's all taken care of and I can show you where the cafeteria is."

"Got it. See you in a bit."

My headache was flaring up and I resolved to bring some medicine for the rest of the time I would be working there as I had no doubts that they would put my translating skills to use. On our way to the elevator, I saw the Riolu's steps waver out of the corner of my eye.

"You don't seem very steady," I mentioned.

A glare was all I received. I would have left him alone if he didn't sit down on our way up the elevator and appear to take far too much effort in getting up.

I let out a sigh at the sight and picked him up, placing him on my shoulder and ignoring the way he tensed up and seemed ready to kick my head as I kept walking. The painful grip they had on the left side of my neck was not given a reaction.

"You are not recovered and I do not want you falling or passing out and leaving me asking random people where the medical area is. You can complain once you're all better."

He was silent and I could feel the indignation rolling off of him, even if the grip became less painful. I tried to ignore the emotion that I knew wasn't mine and found Mr. Shade's office with little issue. I knocked and, because I couldn't clearly hear the response, I assumed that he was allowing me to come in. I opened the door and found myself blinking in confusion for the fourth or fifth time that day when I saw the wings that were folded against his back. The orange that I had seen before were certainly explained when I noticed the scales.

Once more, I wondered if the odds of running into people that the terrorist organization experimented on were raised with each one I met. That made three, that I knew of.

"I said that I was busy."

"Sorry. Couldn't hear through the door. Ms. Sierra said that I should find you and ask for you to bring me to Mr. Simmons as I have a passenger to the Sanctuary." A tilted head left little doubt who the unsaid passenger was.

"Right, you don't have clearance up there on your own. Let's go," he told me as he swept out of the office. As he was in front of me and had neglected to put on the jacket that had previously hidden them, I allowed myself to stare at his wings for a little while before forcing myself to ignore them.

I wondered if everyone at the WPO was as quiet as Mr. Shade and the other members I had met or if I was just seeing the quiet ones as no words were exchanged on our way. The first time either of us said anything is when we approached a checkpoint in the hallway and, instead of pulling out a card, Mr. Shade's left wing extended slightly. I blinked in confusion when I noticed a dark patch through the thin membrane.

Mr. Shade got me through and I finally worded the question I had been holding in.

"Was that a tattoo on your wing?"

"No, it is my version of your pass-card. And a quick warning before we go in: don't ask for any autographs."

"Why would I?"

Mr. Shade looked at my face for a moment and, after checking for something, said, "You don't recognize me?"

"I feel as though I should with that reaction, but no." Sure, there was the faintest niggling of recognition at the sight of his wings and I had assumed that he was that way because of the experiments done to him, but nothing concrete.

"That's a pleasant novelty," he muttered, turning and opening a door without knocking.

"For the love of Arceus, please tell me there isn't _more_ paperwork!?" I found myself letting out a snort at his reaction, understanding the feeling far too well.

I walked in and it took a moment to locate the man behind the paper.

"This is what you get for merging departments," Mr. Shade drawled, his tone amused at Mr. Simmons plight.

"If I knew that the bloody Phantom Thief was going to go and do that I would have asked for a vacation ahead of time," Mr. Simmons muttered and finally noticed me. I took note of the red in his eyes and the blue-tinted hair and I felt a memory just barely out of reach, pleading to be remembered.

"Ms. Sierra said to come to you for transporting this guy to the Sanctuary," I said, answering the unsaid question.

"Perfect!" Mr. Simmons shouted and leapt from his desk, causing me to flinch at the sudden action. The grip on my neck tightened once more and I prayed that I wouldn't have a bruise at the end of that little adventure.

"Shade, tell my secretary that something important has come up. I'll be out for a few hours."

"Taking them to the Sanctuary shouldn't take any longer than half-"

"A few hours~," Mr. Simmons practically sang as he turned me around and began pushing me out into the hallway in a hurried fashion.

I restrained my desire to shove his hands off of me and, moments after I began to feel annoyed at the treatment, he stopped pushing me and give a quick apology.

"I feel as though I am being used to avoid your paperwork," I told him, tone deadpan.

"No, I'm just uhh." His voice trailed off when no excuse appeared and I threw him a rope out of pity.

"I hate paperwork as well. They had me stuck lugging the stacks around earlier today. I'm Thaddeus Kaito."

"Jacob Simmons." He said his name and I could tell he was watching my reaction.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing!" Mr. Simmons said, his tone happy for whatever reason.

"Seriously, should I recognize you and Mr. Shade? He had that reaction after I saw his wings." I hoped that mentioning his extra appendages wasn't somehow rude and was glad when Mr. Simmons gave no indication that it was.

"Oh, Uncle Shade was the focus of a lot of attention for a long while. Probably before you were born." I wondered, for the first time, just how old Mr. Shade really was. With Pokemon DNA in his system, there wasn't a good way to guess.

"What about you?"

"Ah, a few events that happened when I was your age put me smack-dab in the public eye."

"Okay, I was going to leave it alone, but I am definitely looking you up as soon as I get a break."

That just made him chuckle and I was sorely tempted to pull out my phone right then and there.

* * *

Mr. Simmons led me, and wasn't there a lot of that going on, to a designated teleporting area and I put the Riolu down once we were there.

"You all set to go?" I asked him as Mr. Simmons spoke with someone about the trip he was about to take.

"I don't know what to expect," they admitted.

"That's not exactly a bad thing. Just make sure to be receptive to new things and let someone know when you need help." I rubbed my shoulder in a not-so-subtle indicator.

"Everything is ready! You sure you don't want to come along, Thaddeus?"

To a village full of Pokemon who can pick up on my mental state with someone who was apparently high up in the WPO with a Pokemon the Phantom Thief helped free? Even if I regulated my emotions perfectly, which I doubted my ability to do, the chances that one of them might push a little deeper than my surface thoughts was too high.

"Nah. Maybe another time though." Not likely. "I've gotta report back to Ms. Sierra and find the cafeteria. See you later."

Mr. Simmons grinned, saluted me, then vanished as him and the Riolu were teleported away.

* * *

College is a cruel mistress, stealing what little free time I have each and every time it appears. Let me know how you liked the chapter and what you expect for favorite thief. I'm interesting in what y'all might come up with.

And who all appreciates Jacob and Shade showing up? I found writing that scene particularly therapeutic as I could draw myself back into old characters with glee.

Anyways. Hope everyone enjoys this. I'll write whenever I have free time.

Though for whenever I just can't write and am playing Heroes of the Storm or Overwatch (both on PC), here's my Battle net ID if anyone wants to game: TBirdGuy#1191


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